APH - Absolute Zero - Fanfiction
by IndieVal01
Summary: Young Canadian, Matthew Williams, is taking a midnight stroll through the woods when he stumbles upon a discovery. He finds a young girl in the snow, and, being the shy saint that he is, he takes her back to his home, where an obnoxious German makes an almost scary suggestion that the stranger might be about as human as they are...which they aren't. (T to be safe)
1. Chapter 1 - Discovery

Absolute Zero; Chapter 1

(Humans names are used)

The night air was cold and crisp, the young man trekking through the deep snow. He felt it go into his boots, cold and wet, freezing between his legs and boots. He could barely resist a sigh of defeat as he made his way toward Drumheller, Canada. He could drive there-after all, he was a long way away-or at least walk by the roads, but he prefered going through the woods. He felt like that was his most charming detail that his brother, Alfred, didn't have. Beautiful wilderness.

"I think my wilderness is better than Alfred's," the young man found himself saying aloud. The polar bear that walked behind him lifted his head up and asked, "Huh? Who are you?"

He sighed, murming to himself, "I'm...me." He was very soft-spoken, while his brother was loud and obnoxious. How could people mistake them so easily? The young man understood how people couldn't see him-although he disliked that fact, he understood it and accepted it, hoping to someday be noticed-but he didn't understand how, when noticed, he was believed to be Alfred F. Jones, the butt of every joke.

Behind him, the polar bear-Kumajiro, or Kilimanjaro?-let out a loud yelp. The young man gasped, turning around as quickly as he could in the deep snow, and he saw the bear, only his black eyes and nose, sticking out of the snow. He must've fallen into a rift, thought the young man with relief. For a moment, he worried that something had happened. Of course something _did_ happen, but he thought that what had happened was bad. He didn't know what he had expected it to actually be, but it would've been bad. Like being caught by Francis.

Francis, granted that he wasn't trying to grope you, was a nice guy. When the young man had left Arthur's company, and the company of his brother, Alfred, Francis had been overjoyed to take care of him. The young man was still scarred, though, from the childhood. Good scars-like those that made you look manly-were having better food than Alfred and Arthur, and, um...there were a lot of bad scars. Nothing like being abused, no, just things that affected the young man's personality in the future. He was secretly a pervert, no matter how hard he tried not to be. Those "occurances" happened at the most odd of times. The young man would be minding his own business, see a girl-or sometimes even a boy, thanks to Francis not "discriminating" against his lovers' genders-and then suddenly feel like a complete pervert.

_That just isn't fair_, the young man would think often during those moments, or even just when he remembered those moments. _Just because I have a Dildo by Newfoundland doesn't mean that I have to use it..._

"Look!"

Jerked violently out of his thoughts, the young man jumped and wheeled around to face the polar bear again-what was his name? Oh, even though he was sorry about it, he didn't need to worry about the bear's name at the instant-to see what was going on. The bear's high-pitched voice came from slightly off of their off-the-beaten-path path, saying, "Look!"

Hurrying toward the bear's voice, the young man floundered through the snow. You would think that he would be used to it after so long, but the young man liked to "migrate" to different parts of Canada now and then, to get a full view of himself and what he was becoming. Alfred only stayed in his "District of Columbia" unless he had problems in any other part of the United States, like when Arthur messed up and spewed oil into Alfred's gulf. That was one of the first times that the young man had scene his brother cry.

Scared for a worst-case scenario, the young Canadian leaned around an old pine tree. The tree was unlike most pines, for it seemed "dented" in many places, as though some giant kicked it multiple times every couple of inches that it grew. The Canadian leaned around the crippled tree, expecting to see some vampire bull moose or something, or a flying cow-a _female_ moose, not those things that Alfred enjoys eating-but what he saw scared him more than any cow-bull mating ritual.

The polar bear was nosing a limp bundle that lay half-buring in the snow. The young man gasped, purple-blue eyes widening, and, to make sure that he wasn't imagining things, he wiped his snowflake-dotted glasses onto his red snow coat. He placed them back on his face and saw that what he had seen first was still there.

"We have to..." the young man had no clue what he was saying, but he was sure that the bear hadn't heard him anyway, with how shaky and soft it was. He gulped in the dry air, blinking his blonde-lashed eyes. He awkwardly rubbed his pink nose with the back of his cold right hand, feeling cold skin against cold skin as he sniffed in. His nose was dry, so he didn't have any snot or anything, but this seemed like some unnreal world. He saw a young girl laying in the snow, sheltered from the wind by a large, talking polar bear, while he could smell nothing, feel nothing, and hear nothing in the silence of the night.

A groan came from the girl. The young man gasped, finding himself instantly kneeling by her side. He pushed his hands under her and hoisted her up out of the snow without a moment's notice. Her brunette hair, slightly wavy-about as wavy as his-brushed against his right cheek, and he felt her burrow her cold face into his neck. A shudder ran through his body, and he told the bear, "I have to get her home!"

"Who are you?"

Ignoring that for the first time in his life, without any reply or thought whatsoever, the young man began running agiley through the trees. He didn't hit any trees or trip on anything, nor did he bump the girl into anything. For some reason, carrying the girl was hard. He could carry his polar bear-WAIT, HE LEFT HIM BEHIND?!-without any strain, as if he were simply holding a bottle of water or something light but heavier than a feather. Yet, for some reason, this girl was heavy despite her thin stature and young appearance. She was about as heavy as a Grand Piano. A mister Roderick would relate to that comparison, the young man thought to himself.

After only a few minutes of ceaseless running, the young man saw his log cabin. It was like a mansion of cabins, being four stories high-plus a basement and an attic-with eight rooms on each floor. Smoke came out of one of three chimneys-normally it came out of two of three chimneys, but only the houseguest was there, and he was too obnoxious to be able to handle the complexity of handling two fireplaces.

Running down the hill, the young man felt his right foot hit a slick, ice-covered rock beneath the snow. His feet flew out from under him, and his back slammed against the snow, and he skidded down for several meters, snow flying up his shirt and coat. Shivering, yet not bothering to try and get it all out, he stood up and continued toward his cabin. He had built it himself, even though he wasn't a professional at house-building, and he had chopped down and planted more trees all by himself, although he wasn't even a professional lumberjack.

Coming to the door, he swung up his left foot and kicked it in. A German-accented shout came from inside, "WHOA, NOT AWESOME!"

Ignoring his houseguest for one of the first times as well, the young man strolled into his house and headed to his left, to the kitchen. He lay the girl down on the empty dining table, and the German man closed the door and called to the young man, "I was hungry, so I ate your ice-cream! It was pretty yummy, but not nearly as awesome as it could have been!"

Heat coursed down the young man's body at that comment. He instantly shed his coat onto the floor without a care, clumps of snow falling off of it and onto the cold wood floor, and the young man stared at the German man. The man was fairly young in appearance, with white hair, pale skin, and red eyes. He wasn't actually albino-albino people have pale blue eyes, unlike animals.

The young man gulped, and raised his voice-which was a normal speaking tone-as he said, "Tell me that again. You ate my icecream?"

With a snort, the German said, "_Ja, so_? I vill buy you some tomorrow to replace zem, 'cuz I'm awesome like that."

Now that that was settled, the young man turned his attention to the girl on his dining table. He grabbed onto the table cloth and yanked out from under her like a magician, and he lay it over her like a blanket. He ran around the messy bar that seperated the kitchen from the living room, and he began to run up the stairs. He halted, though, spinning around just as the blue-clad German began to creep into the kitchen, and he pointed at the man, saying as loudly as his soft voice could manage, "Don-don't touch her. I'm j-just g-getting things, s-s-so when I come back, a-and you are mess-messing with her, I w-will replay last w-week's hockey game."

Startled, the German froze, sweat beading his forehead, and he said as nonchalantly as he could, "Oh, pffft, _nein_, I am too awesome to mess vit tuh girl. Just go get your tings, _ja_?"

Not entirely trusting him, the young man hurried up to grab a hand-made quilt, a downy pillow, and a first-aid kit. He hurried back down even faster and found that the German was only taking a drink of whatever was on the bar.

As he took the table cloth off of the girl, the young man laid the blanket over her. The German looked over his shoulder at the Canadian and asked, "Mattie, vhere did you find her?"

Matt looked over his shoulder and told the German, "In the woods." He began to continue to pat her cheeks, trying to wake her up, when the German asked, "Perhaps she is country like you _und_ I, _und_ she _ist_ Quebec?"

That hadn't occured to Matt. He gasped, eyes wide. Quebec _had_ kept wanting to become independent...what if they had become so free-willed as to have created their own representative?


	2. Chapter 2 - Knowledge

Absolute Zero; Chapter 2

The air vanished from Matthew's body, and he stiffened. Quebec? Suddenly, the German behind him began laughing, saying, "Whoa, you vill have to make her like you so she vill not vant to become independent! Tat vill be hard, though. You aren't very likeable."

Matthew sighed and just slid the pillow under the girl's head. He tried to pat her cold cheeks, to wake her up, and he found himself hoping. He didn't know if he was hoping for her to be human or for being Quebec. He felt confused, and if she could explain herself, then he wouldn't need to worry.

A groan came from the girl's lips, and Matthew nearly jumped in fear. The German began laughing about how girly that Matt was, so Matt said, "Gilbert, please be quiet. U-Um, m-miss, are you-you okay?"

She groaned again, and her eyes fluttered open. She stared into space almost fearfully. She had very pretty pale blue eyes, but they weren't like the sky, like Alfred's eyes, or like violet-blue like Matt's eyes. They were the color of blue Forget-me-nots, and they were very bright with her black eyelashes, making her eyes seem to glow. Matt was amazed at how beautiful she was, and almost felt honored that she could possibly be a part of him. Although her eyes were pretty, they seemed large for some reason, though. Still, she was very pretty.

"U-um..." Matt stammered softly, "A-are you okay?"

The young girl gasped, eyes looking in every direction wildly. She looked at Matt several times but never seemed to see him, and she gasped, saying, "I-I can't see! M-my glasses!"

Now, Matt understood why her eyes looked big. She must try to peel her eyes open to try and see without her glasses. She was in the middle of panicking, which made Matt feel weird, so he said, "P-Please, calm down, do-do you know where your glasses might be?"

She gulped, shaking slightly. Finally, she said, "Um, I think in my coat."

Gilbert peered around Matt, reaching for the girl's navy-blue coat, and he said, "Kesesesese, you can't see, let me get it-"

Matt managed to push Gilbert away while the girl patted herself up and down for it. Finally, she found her coat zipper and unzipped it. A navy-blue shirt with gold stars all over it, making her appear like the night sky. It looked like the night sky was peeled down like a wallpaper and stuck onto her body. Some stars were brighter than others, some forming recognizable constellations-Matt could identify the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, and he also saw Sirius A and the North Star. The girl reached into an inside coat pocket and pulled out a pair of glasses. They were gold and glittered, as though polished. She slipped them onto her face. They were large, like sterotypical nerd glasses, but she looked cute with them on. Her eyes appeared smaller now, more anatomically correct.

The girl blinked rapidly, her long black lashes fluttering up and down. Matt noticed that little white anchors were imprinted on the temples of her glasses, along with the imprint of what appeared to be a Forget-me-not next to the anchors. The girl turned her gaze to Matt, and she looked him in the eyes. She gulped and stammered, "M-Mister, where am I?"

Matt tried to think of how to explain it. Gilbert laughed and said, "You be graced with the Aweome Me's presence!"

"Bad grammar," the girl said. Gilbert stiffened, staring at her awkwardly. She continued, "You said 'You be' but that is incorrect. 'You are' is more accurate."

Gilbert grumbled and sulked away, murmuring, "Not awesome...she's definitely Quebec..."

Matt found himself smiling, and he told the girl, "I'm Matthew Williams. That is Gilbert Beilschmidt. I, uh, I found you in the woods not far away...do you know what happened to you?"

She gulped, shaking her head, and said, "I don't know. All I remember is a snow storm, and I was trying to get through it. Then I blacked out."

"Okay," Matt said softly. "Do you know your name or where you're from?"

The girl shook her head, "I only know my first name, not the surname or my current residence. I'm Lauren."

_Lauren_, Matt thought. Would Quebec go by that name? The girl continued, hugging the blanket to herself, "I, I'm kind of scared. I don't remember anything. I'd rather have a scary history than forget it, I think. Do you know who I am?"

With a gulp, Matt said, "I, I think I do."


	3. Chapter 3 - As a Personification

Hetalia; Absolute Zero Chapter 3

Blankly staring at Matt, Lauren contemplated her safety. How safe could she be in the house of two strangers? Looking into Matt's eyes, she felt that she could trust the Canadian. She asked, "Who am I?"

Matt cringed, the words feeling weird in his ears. He was used to "who are you" being directed at him, so her question was familiar yet alien at the same time. After a moment, he told her, "I b-believe that you're like Gil-Gilbert and I...as in, we aren't...we aren't _human_..."

He felt his face grow hot and red as the girl stared at him. Gulping, he said with a hung head, "I mean, we s-sort of are, b-but we represent c-countries...I, I'm Canada. Gilbert is P-Prussia, but since Prussia i-is dissolved, he l-lives with me. Gilbert's b-brother, Ludwig, is G-Germany, and m-my brother, Alfred, i-is the United States."

Fire burned in his eyes as she stared at him. She wrapped herself up in the blanket, searching for a lie, a joke, something to convince her that he wasn't telling the truth. She found none, so she sighed, shoulders sagging, and she asked, "What country am I, then?"

Matthew looked up at her, saying, "T-That's the p-problem." He took his gaze away from hers, and she listened calmly-though her pulse quickened-as he explained, "I, I am not sure. I think that you are Quebec. They have been wanting f-freedom down there, and-and maybe their h-hope for in-independence has created you."

Lauren grasped this fairly quickly. She asked, "So, is Quebec a country, now?"

Matt shook his head, saying, "N-No, you just r-represent their d-differences f-from me. Alfred, the US, found Texas's representative, Hugh, who is his little b-brother. T-Texas had a 86% vote for secession in 2013, a-and shortly after, Alf-Alfred found Hugh. Y-You don't h-have to be independent to ex-exist. Your p-people just have to feel t-that way."

The girl understood, nodding as she said, "Okay, I understand. So...we're brother and sister?"

Awkwardly, Matt nodded. Lauren smiled at him, making him blush. She wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug, and Matt felt heat rush to his face, and he tried to push away the Francey thoughts, by thinking, _NO! She is my sister, sister!_ Eager to make the feeling go, he pulled away and said, "O-Okay, I'll t-take you shopping f-for more c-clothes tomorrow, a-and we'll even g-go to Quebec."

Smiling at him, Lauren said, "Thank you."

Matt told her that she was welcome. Now he just had to worry about keeping her happy and loving without spoiling her. That had been Arthur's mistake, and Matt didn't want to live through something like his two brother's had. Matt told Lauren, "I-I'll go upstairs a-and get you s-some clean clothes t-to sleep in."

Lauren perched herself in front of the fireplace while Matt went upstairs. He found a baggy red shirt that was too small for him and a pair of red draw-strap shorts that were also too small for him. Not wanting to leave Lauren waiting, he hurried back down the stairs with the clothing. He found her sitting on the floor, a pencil and notepad in her hands, as she sketched something.

Gulping, Matt asked, "W-Where'd you g-get that?"

"It was in my coat," she said, looking up at him with the oddly blue eyes. Her eyes were fairly purple, too, just like a Forget-Me-Not or the shade crossed between Matt's eyes and Alfred's eyes. It made sense-Quebec was perched at the border of Canada and America. Matt just nodded at the girl, pleased that she could find something to entertain herself, and he handed her the clothes. Sheepishly, he told her, "I, I can go and let you ch-change here, o-or you can ch-change in another room. M-Most are c-cold, though."

Matt's new guest seemed deep in thought. With just a decision of where to change clothes, she looked like she was planning to go to war or not. Perhaps she would be a better country than most-especially Alfred, who just thought of something and instantly went with it-but Matt still didn't want to lose Quebec. Not only would he still be a big country, rivaled only by the bigger Russia, but it would probably hurt to lose a piece of himself.

Finally, Lauren said, "I'll change here."

Sighing, Matt dismissed himself to another room, closing the door behind him. He shivered for a few moments, contemplating what he might face. He would have to make her happy, yet not spoilted, like Arthur had done to Alfred. He would have to teach her about what it means to be a country. He would have to protect her from invasions until she was expert enough to protect herself. He would have to get used to a second opinion about Canada's problems and solutions, now that she was around...

"I'm dressed," Lauren called from outside the door. Matt exited the room, trying to will his thoughts away. He felt a few of them fly out of his ears like moths, but most lingered like earthworms when you try to dig them up, but they wiggle down deeper into the soil.

Matthew almost laughed with how adorable Lauren looked. She had to be about fourteen, but she looked like she was nine years old. She wasn't much shorter than him, but she was slender, and the clothes were so baggy on her that she looked like a little kid wearing her mother's clothing. Or, in this case, her big brother's clothing.

Lauren smiled at him, the tiny freckles on her cheeks rising. Matt smiled back, and he said, "Okay, it-it's b-bedtime. I-I don't h-have a room set u-u-up for you, s-so you can sl-sleep with me."

She beamed. Matt had expected her to accuse him of being a pervert or something, but she said, "I get to sleep with my big brother!" She hugged Matt and said, "I left my clothes folded on your sofa, M...Matt." She didn't seem to be used to the sound on her tongue, and she wasn't. She was pleased, though, to have someone to sleep with. She was afraid of the dark and of being alone.

"That's okay," Matt said in response to her comment about her clothes. "I will g-get them in the morning. N-Now, f-follow me."

They headed up the stairs and headed into Matt's room. Lauren stayed close at his back, almost stepping on his heels at times. She didn't want to be seperated from the person that she had just met, especially her kind brother. She liked that idea of a brother. It sounded warm and pleasant, as though it were a nice warm bubble bath during the cold months.

Matt opened the door to see Gilbert sitting on his bed, laptop in his lap. Matt gasped, and stammered, "W-What are you d-doing?"

Gilbert looked up and said, "Gilbird pooped on my bed. It ist still an awesome bed, but I reesk losing some awesomeness if I sleep on eet now."

Lauren daintily grabbed onto the back of Matt's shirt, using the very tips of her forefinger and thumb. Matt didn't even feel the cloth tug. Lauren felt like he was suddenly going to walk away from her, leave her alone in the dark hallway. The hallway was cold, and the carpet was soft and white, reminding her of snow. She didn't want to be left alone in the snow.

The two men, Gilbert and Matt, had shared a bed before. It wasn't sexual, really, although Matt felt that Francey side of his brain trying to peek out. It was when one had a bad dream or one's room was cold and things. Often Gilbert would try to sleep with Matt, saying, "I have come to bless you vith some awesomeness" while Matt would come and say, "I-I can't sleep..." and they would just share a bed like two little kids at a slumber party. Matt was embarassed by the fact that Lauren heard of it, but when he glanced back at her, she was staring into space, her eyes glazed over, so he figured that she didn't hear it. She actually hadn't, so when Matt told her, "G-Gilbert w-will sleep with us t-tonight" she was shocked and confused.

"Why?" Lauren asked, and Matt explained, "I-It's n-nothing i-in-inappropriate. B-But his b-bed is dirty."

Originally, Matt had slept between Lauren and Gilbert for protection's sake, but Lauren kept on letting out a little whimper in her sleep, then immediately roll off of the bed and onto the floor with a painful thunk. She never woke up, but Matt was concerned, so he picked her up and laid her between himself and Gilbert, wrapping one of the three blankets around her like a burrito.

Gilbert was asleep at that point, snoring softly yet not annoyingly. Matt laid down, wrapping his arms protectively around his little sister's shoulders. He felt embarassed, but he knew that there was nothing wrong with it, even if he _was_ shy, so the discomfort faded after a while. Gilbert felt Lauren's head snuggle into his left shoulder, and in his dream, he was young again, laying next to young Elisabeta. He brotherly wrapped his arms around Lauren, and they fell asleep like that.

_Lauren felt comforting, yet cold, arms wrapped around her. She whined, burying her face into the person's chin. She felt something soft but sticky with hardened snow on her forehead and face, so she whined louder, yet didn't pull away. She heard male voices speaking, and the one coming from right above her said,_ "Please take care of Lara."

_Two more arms wrapped around her, from the back, and these arms were warmer. They were equally snow-covered, but more warmth came from under leather than from under the materal of the other man's jacket. The new voice sneered in a different accent, which sounded entirely foreign to Lauren-yet it resembled Matt's way of speaking_-"Of course I will. You're the one selling her."

_Lauren felt herself be turned around by the warmer arms, and she was held inside of a warmer jacket, soft and furry on the inside, leather and insulating on the outside. She buried her face into the man's neck, but she longed for the familiar smell and caressing arms of the other man. She whined for him, but the felt the new body turn and begin to walk away, and she fell asleep again._

She woke up alone in the bed, tangled up and shivering under three layers of blankets. Matt had gotten up to shower and get a room ready when he noticed that Lauren had been shivering like an earthquake, so he wrapped his blanket around her and tucked her in. Gilbert had gotten up a little later to continue his blog, when he noticed that Lauren was shaking violently, so he did the awesome thing and wrapped his blanket over her as well. She was still shivering and cold.

Matt had been watching her wake up from his bathroom that connected to his bedroom. He peered out through the door, her back to him. He could see her shivering from here, and he instantly felt terrible deep in his heart, as if it was his fault-even though it wasn't.

_I'll be the best big brother ever,_ Matthew thought, vowing to keep her warm at all costs, happy at all costs, yet respectful and courteous at all costs as well.


	4. Chapter 4 - Trip to Quebec

Hetalia Fanfiction - Absolute Zero - Chapter 4

Once Lauren was clothed in the outfit she wore yesterday, she, Matthew, and Gilbert all climbed into Matt's red-orange pickup truck to head to Quebec for clothes for Lauren. Gilbert didn't really want to come along, but he would feel like they were ignoring his awesomeness if they left him behind, so he tagged along, even though Gilbird stayed.

Lauren was excited and stared out at the snow-covered landscape around her. The trees, the buildings, the people outside doing their own things, and everything else was all so beautiful. Lauren was excited, but wasn't good at showing it, actually. She had her arms crossed-she was cold-over her chest and she stared blankly out of the window, as if she were a corpse. Matt was afraid that she was displeased, and kept asking her if she would like to turn on the radio or change the station or to roll down the window or stop for something.

She almost immediately understood what was wrong, so she turned to him and said, "Oh, I'm okay, thank you, though. I'm really happy that you're doing this, Matt, you're so nice. Thank you."

Gilbert sat in the backseat behind Matt, so he had a clear view of Lauren and she him, so he kept asking her questions like, "Am I awesome?" or "Did you meet Gilbird?" He would've actually asked better questions to start a conversation, but he wasn't used to new people to talk to. Sure, there were countries that he hadn't talked to in a while to start back up with, but he'd spoken to them all before. The closest he'd been to a new "friend" was when Hugh, Texas, had been getting mad at a few other countries for being jerks-especially Juan, Mexico, as if he actually remembered anything about them.

Actually, Hugh remembered things from history, as if he had been there. He still hadn't actually witnessed it, but it was more like when you're ten years old and hear your parents' stories about how you bit the nurse during childbirth, so you see it in your mind as if you could remember it, or about when you kicked your mother's bladder while in her belly. No way to remember it, but you imagined doing it, and it was fairly accurate.

The drive was actually fairly quiet, heaviness weighing in the air. Once they got to Quebec, Matt found a hotel that was fairly inexpensive and parked the car. He, Gilbert, and Lauren all climbed out. He was glad that passage between Quebec and the rest of Canada wasn't affected. In fact, the people of Quebec and the rest of Canada weren't very hateful to each other and often went about their daily lives normally. Matthew led Gilbert and Lauren to the front of the inn, where it led to billards on one side of the lobby and a bit of a kitchen on the other, a sign saying (FREE FRUIT - FREE COCOA). Lauren asked Matt, "Can I go to the kitchen for a snack?"

He nodded and said, "Yes, but not too much. We'll go get a real lunch before going shopping for your new clothes."

She thanked him and headed off into the kitchen. Gilbert thrust his hands into his pants pockets, beginning to whistle, and started to follow her into the kitchen, but Matthew stopped him and said, "You're paying for s-some of this."

Gilbert groaned and said, "Fine. But only cuz I'm awesome like zat!"

The German strolled after Lauren into the kitchen. He found her peering into the small fridge, bent over, craning her neck to find whatever she might want. Gilbert looked at her butt for a moment, then forced himself to continue on walking, fearing that Matt might be watching. Matt was a soft-spoken Canadian, but he was, after all, Canadian, and could swing a hockey stick like Alfred could swing a baseball bat. Once, Gilbert had made Matt so angry-which was actually hard to do, since he was so even-tempered and seemed like a sissy-that Matt had taken his hocket stick and hit Gilbert forty-two times with ten hockey pucks. He hit he pucks exactly forty-two times, and no matter where Gilbert ran, how fast he was, or what he did to try and avert the weapons, he was always hit. He was bruised up for over a week, and it hurt for him to relieve himself for even longer.

Reaching up to grab a cup out of the cupboard above his head, Gilbert began to pour himself some coffee. Lauren closed the fridge and reached up for a cup as well, but she was too short. Gilbert smiled in his conceited way and grabbed a cup for her. He handed it to her, and she took it gratefully. Before Gilbert could say anything, she thanked him and scuttled away to the far side of the kitchen, where the sink was. She poured water into the cup and placed it in the microwave.

"Hot Chocolate?" Gilbert asked, and she curtly nodded, her back to him. Lauren turned around, eyes wide and sparkly as though she didn't see anything and was wanting to see, and she asked in a far away voice, "What's that smell?"

Her gaze was odd and sleepy, as though Lauren was on some awesome drug that made all thoughts leave her brain. Gilbert, forcing himself to stop thinking about that awesome drug, told her, "I don't know-vhat does eet smell like?"

Gilbert could see the lump slide up and down her throat as she gulped. Lauren opened her eyes wider, then squeezed them shut and reopened them. As though hypnotized, she turned around and grabbed a packet of hot chocolate mix with marshmallows in it, and she said in a strained voice, "Alcoholic."

Lauren felt like nothing existed in her brain. She didn't know if she liked it or hated it, and that is what made her hate it. The indecision-you should always be absolutely positive of what you felt, thought, and believed, or you were hopeless in every way. She listened to the hum and purr of the microwave as it spun the cup of water around, heating it. She clenched her eyes shut, fingers digging into the foil packet of powdered chocolate, and she thought, _5n+(3+4)-6x=76...what is n?_

Working that question quickly pulled her out of the daze, so she gave up after she figured out what 3 and 4 added up to, so she went around looking for a snack. She found an apple, not noticing that Gilbert leaned against the wall on the other side of the kitchen, back in the corner of two walls. She began to notice him and felt his stare, and even though she was uneasy, she was glad for a familiar presence, so she said, "I like dogs, sir. Do you like dogs?"

Surprised, Gilbert was jerked from his thoughts. He asked, "Huh? Vell, it depends on ze dog."

"I like all dogs," she said. "Well, the little dogs kind of annoy me, I think, but I like the big dogs, like St. Bernards, Malamutes, and German Shepherds"-Gilbert interrupted, saying, "My baby bro loves Shepherds. He has zree; Jaeger, Lars, und Bruno."

Lauren smiled, turning to face Gilbert. He was relieved to see her normal-looking face, and she said, "Those names are awesome! Will I ever meet the dogs?"

Gilbert shrugged, pleased that she knew vocabulary similar to his, and he looked away casually as he said, "I do not know. Zhey're big, manly dogs, and zhey're vicious vhen fighting occurs."

Catching the German off guard, the Canadian said, "That's even better!"

As he looked back at her, she took a bite out of her apple. Matthew called to them, "Guys, we're ready to go to the room."

The microwave beeped right then, so Lauren called, "I just got my hot chocolate!" while rushing to pull the mug out and apply the powder. She kept flinching away from the white cup as she poured the powder, but she didn't seem to mind the heat too much, seeing as she held it firmly in both hands only a few seconds after stirring up the powder and small marshmallows. She felt the heat sting into her skin, but it didn't bother her. She followed Gilbert, dropping the apple in the trashcan after only a bite, and saw Matt standing in the lobby.

"Let's go," he said, holding a key card in his left hand. The card said 5C. They left the lobby out the back door, which led to stairs to the top floor. They walked under a patio that cast shade over them, walking by doors and windows. Lauren felt awkward when passing windows, as though taking a glance to the right might make the residents believe that she was peeking in to spy or something.

They found their room and headed in. Lauren set her cocoa down on the nearest table and jumped onto the bed closest to the door, landing on the stomach. She groaned, saying, "I'm tAAAAAI-urrd."

Matthew, dumbstruck, said, "B-But we have to g-go shopping f-for your c-clothes."

Lauren only groaned, the sound muffled by the bed. Gilbert sat down on the bed next to that one, saying, "I vill go get my computer in a moment. I vill have to update my awesome blog for about an ow-ver."

Defeated and embarassed, Matthew sat down on the foot of Lauren's bed while Gilbert got back up to go get his laptop. Once back, Gilbert wrote in German on the site he made all for his awesome self.

_Yeah, totally awesome, right?_ Gilbert wrote on his online diary, _And Mattie has a new sister, Quebec-she goes by Lauren. That name is so common and unawesome. She's pretty awesome right now, though. She's weird, though, and reminds me of somebody. Not Matt, heck no! He's too nerdy. She is smart and wears glasses, but she's not as nerdy as Matt. _

_She's also shivering a lot and when she touched a totally hot cup of hot chocolate, she seemed relaxed by the heat. Is that freaky or awesome? Oh well, I'm still awesome. Matt just rented an inn in Quebec, and I totally escaped paying for a fraction of the cost to get here. If anything, Lauren should pay-she's Quebec, after all._

_We're shopping for her clothes here and all that unawesome stuff. If Lauren let's me pick her clothes, then maybe she will be a little awesome. But she's kinda freaky. When she started making hot chocolate, she acted like a total zombie! Her eyes were dead and she sounded like she was a robot speaking! I hope it's not contagious, or else it might ruin my awesomeness._

A little while later, a woman knocked on the door. Matthew answered, and she asked in French, "_Could you take the time to answer this poll on how you feel about Quebec becoming independent?_"

Matthew wished that the woman couldn't see him. She was dark skinned, possibly with lineage in Spain, and she had a shaved head which was covered by the hood of her jacket. She was pretty but older, maybe in her fifties. Matthew gulped and knew that Lauren was watching. He said, "_I, I am not f-from Quebec. I, I think that Quebec doesn't need to leave, but if majority rules, then Quebec should l-leave_."

Lauren came bouncing up, no longer tired. She asked the woman, in French, "_May I give _my_ answer?_"

The woman beamed and said, "_Of course_!"

Matthew's little sister knew what her answer was. She was absolutely positive and would never change the answer. She said, "_Non. Unless Quebec is abused by Canada, like how England had abused the thirteen colonies, then Quebec has no right to leave_."

The woman put tallies here and there on her clipboard and says, "_We thank you both_!"

She turned around and rushed away excitedly. Matthew closed the door, feeling Lauren wrap her arms around his waist from behind. She beamed as brightly as the woman had, and she said in English again, "Yay! Thank you for being honest! That's all that matters, even if you said that I should never leave, or if I should leave, or if it didn't matter!"

His face ran red, and Matthew stammered, "T-Thank you..."

Gilbert had been confused for just a moment. How did Lauren speak French? Although it made sense that she could speak French-after all, she's Quebec-he didn't know _how_. He had to learn English, but then again, Prussia didn't speak English in all of its history. With a nonchalant shrug, Gilbert continued updating his blog for all of his awesome fans to see.

Alfred watched the news, Hugh sitting to his right, as the Texan chirped, "And what's totally cool is those Mexicans still want me! Man, my cops are totally cool! They stopped those illegals and sent them back!"

With a laugh, Alfred said, "Totally, right? Hey, one sec, Imma go order some take-out Chinese..."

He got up, heading to the front porch, to call for some Chinese noms. Alfred pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed the number-he actually had it on speed dial-and said, "Um, yeah, can I prease have some Teriaki chicken? Oh, and I wourd rove for some white rice. Courd you prease give me extra duck sauce?"

A feminine voice on the other end growned, "Aiyah, accent is stupid...fine. Twenty-two dorra's, and forty-fai minutes."

The Chinese dude or dudette hungup, and Alfred headed back inside. The dude on channel seven said, "Several more states have decided to vote on a seccession. Texas has a whopping 90% vote to secede-five more points, and they have the right to go. Arkansas voted 76%, Florida has a 63% vote to secede, California only has 33% for seccession..."

Wide-eyed, the American stared at the TV. "..._Montana voted 54% to secede...Delaware only voted 42%...Nevada voted 78%, New Mexico voting 62%...Hawaii voted 74%...Puerto Rico no longer wishes to be called a fifty-first state_..." Fire was seeming to sear Alfred's brain. He sunk down into his sofa by the door, holding his forehead in his right, gloved hand. What kind of brother was he to cause so many of his siblings to wish to leave so badly?

"_Washington State voted 56%...Michigan had a 48% vote...it seems like most of the East Coast still has pride for being the original America, huh_?" The man's female buddy said, "I agree, but still, more states are voting to secede..."

The man continued, saying, "_Nebraska voted 65%...Alaska, with 86%...Alabama had a 63% vote...and all other states held the same numbers as last time, except for __Oklahoma, whose vote dropped down to 54%_..."

Hugh laughed, saying with his southern drawl, "Whoa, dude, how come they all don't like you no more?"

Alfred sighed, closing his eyes behind his glasses, and said, "I don't know, bro...I try hard...but, but for the past eight terms, the people voted into office...they're all douchebags...first my healthcare, then my guns, then my manufacturing...I hate to say this, but if history is right, then a war might be the only thing that could like, help me...we could all rally as Americans under the red, white, and blue, and we would be working at home, making our own things for the war..."

Raising a right, blonde eyebrow, Hugh asked, "Hold on, you sayin' the only hope to get out of this recession-depression-secession is to have a war?"

A gurgle escaped Alfred's throat, and he knew that he was being uncharacteristically thoughtful, but he said, "Never mind. Forget I said it."

He got up and left, then quickly headed back in the house and told Hugh, "When the food gets here, the rice is mine."

Now that that business was done, Alfred left, slamming the door behind him. He climbed into his Ford Mustang-it was a classic model, not the new ugly versions-and drove away.

On the radio, a stupid rap song about comparing naughty things to Captain Crunch came on. Alfred hissed and turned off the radio, driving in silence, the only sound entering his ears coming from honking horns in the distance and the purr of the engine.

Stopping at a red light, Alfred waited patiently and calmly. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, the person in front of him just chilling out like him. The person began to play with their phone as the light turned green. Alfred saw the guy not paying attention, like dude, really? and he scooted up to the back of the dude's car. No matter how close Alfred got, the guy didn't move. Alfred found himself screaming at the guy, "IDIOTTTTT! YOU STUPID MOTHER-" he laid down on the horn, his own eardrums popping.

The guy still didn't move one inch. The light turned yellow, then red. Then the guy pulled out illegally and preceded to be hit by a speeding car that had the right to go, and Alfred didn't even get out of his car to check on the stupid dude. He was example to the epicness of the United States.

Idiot Driver was okay, but his pathetic VW was totaled. He deserved it, thought Alfred, and drove around the wreck as the light turned green again. He was ticked, and no one was going to stop him.


	5. Chapter 5 - Total Drama Mall

Chapter 5

Ivan Braginski sat down in the snow, eyes closed, and ignored the cold that seeped through his clothes. He imagined a vast field of sunflowers, the sunflowers going further than the eye could see on either side...from horizon to horizon, sunflowers spanned...

He heard a door open and shut behind him, and a worried female voice cooed, "Ivan! You will be catching death out here!"

Feet crunched through the snow, a young woman, older than Ivan, kneeling to his right. She wrapped her arms around him and said in her Ukrainian accent, "Morozko will be nipping your nose! Come, I will be warming up something to eat, yes? Will you like that?"

The Russian felt his sister gently pull him into a standing position. She lightly dusted off the snow clinging to his clothes, then preceded to play with his hair. She stared at him with her blue eyes, and she said playfully, "How is it that snow is caught in your hair, when sky is not crying snowflakes? Did you play in snow?"

With a smile, Ivan shook his head and said cheerily, "No, but I walked under tree that dropped snow on my head!"

His sister laughed, and he asked, "Yekaterina?"

"Yes?" the Ukrainian asked.

Thinking for a moment, Ivan finally decided to ask, "Do you think that I am good baby brother?"

Surprised, Yekaterina tilted her head to the side. She smiled at her innocent-looking brother and said, "Of course! Why are you acting like you used to, when we were young? I've always loved you, baby brother." She really did care for him, but she was unable to have a life of her own. She never wanted to hurt him, but she didn't want to always be in his shadow.

Ivan smiled at her. For some reason, he remembered when Chernobyl happened. He and Nataliya had helped evacuate Pripyet, but the scar over Europe-and Yekaterina herself-was horrifying. Ivan was insulted that Alfred's country had made a movie, _Chernobyl Diaries_, about that. The positive thing, though, was that all the stupid Americans died in the end.

Yekaterina enjoyed Ivan's childish smile, but was also glad that she didn't know what was causing that smile.

Hugh opened the door, and a Chinese woman stood there, holding a paper bag, and saying, "Aiyah, I got rost because you forgot to give me directions..."

"Sorry, chick," Hugh said, "but that wasn't me, that was-"

"I'M NOT CHICK!" The Chinese-person snapped, glaring up at Hugh. "I am mare, aiyah!"

The Texan stared at the Chinese guy for a moment, then reached into his back pocket for his wallet, moaning. He pulled out a brown leather wallet and opened it, handing twenty-five dollars to the dude, and said, "Okay, fine, bro. Here, tup included."

Still glaring at Hugh, the Chinese guy took the money and put it into his pocket. He glared at Hugh for a moment, then he realized, this guy was familiar...

"Texas?" the China-man asked? Hugh was surprised, and he asked, "Whoa, how you know that?"

Groaning, the Chinese guy said, "It's me, Yao. Aiyah, where's Arfred?"

To be honest, Yao didn't say "aiyah" a lot, but he purposely wanted to irritate the Texan, who thought that "aiyah" was the most annoying sound in any language.

Hugh gasped, too surprised to be annoyed, and he asked, "Dude, how you be?"

"You do not have to try speaking broken Engrish for me to understand you..."

"Huh?" Hugh asked, "Wah ya say? I be speakin' good English."

Yao hated to think that he spoke better English than most Americans, but it was a painful fact. He just ignored the Texan, saying, "Werr, where is Arfred? I thought he wourd be picking up food he ordered..."

Shrugging nonchalantly, Hugh said in a half-second-long-grumble, "Aihunwoh. Out fer business, I reck'n."

_Aiyah, so stereotypical..._ thought Yao, but he just said, "Werr, if you or Arfred need anything, you both know how to get me. So rong."

The Chinese man turned and left, climbing into his car and driving away. Hugh went inside with the food, waiting thirty minutes before asking out loud, "WAY A MOM'NT! WHY HE HERE?!"

Alfred was sitting on the hood of his car, watching the sun set behind evergreen trees in the distance. He sighed, hugging his knees and burying his face in his arms. What had he done so wrong? Was this how Arthur had felt, all those years ago? Actually, it wasn't a long time ago, in historical time...no, Arthur couldn't have felt like that. This was entirely different.

Texas had been at 86 percent before Hugh was found...Arkansas had a high rating, surprisingly high for such a mild-mannered state...heck, Arkansas wasn't a very notable state. Alfred often forgot about it, himself.

What other states had the possibility with personification?

Alfred thought to himself, _Okay, Arkansas had 76%...too high for comfort...Alaska had 86%, like Texas had...Florida had 63%...Nevada had 78%, right? New Mexico was 62%, Alabama having 63%..._

What was he doing wrong? Alfred sighed, pulling out his phone and going to speed dial. He called his boss. A woman answered, "Yes, Alfred?"

Softly, Alfred asked, "Dude, what's the problem? Why can't you do things right?"

"What do you mean?"

"The money..." Alfred said. "Everything goes to China or Korea. Heck, I saw Taiwan on an ash tray the other day...sure, they're not bad guys, but I need some cash, too..."

"It's not like I can force Americans to start businesses to replace China."

That wasn't what Alfred had meant, and his female president knew it. Alfred continued, "Fine, then, what about healthcare? Medicade, Medicare, Veterans' Affairs...why do you write those dumb laws preventing most normal Americans from getting medicine they need?"

"I want to stop the wrong people from mooching off of our medical sys-"

"IDIOT!" Alfred snapped. "Fine, then, since you allow over half of my states to use marijuana as medication, I'll believe you! Tell me, then, about what you did to me guns?"

Angrily, the president said, "How many children have to be killed in schools for you to decide to ban guns?"

"EXPLAIN TO ME HOW MAKING STRICTER GUN LAWS WILL SAVE LIVES?!" Alfred snapped. "OVER HALF OF THE STATES THAT ARE GETTING CLOSER AND CLOSER TO SECEDING ARE ANGRY ABOUT THE 'USELESS GUNS'! HOW MANY MORE PEOPLE HAVE DIED DUE TO GUN VIOLENCE THAN BEFORE? YOU ROB THE CIVILIANS OF THEIR PROTECTION, AND EXPECT CRIMINALS TO SUDDENLY FOLLOW LAWS! IT SAYS IN THE CONSTITUTION, WE HAVE THE RIGHTS TO DEFEND OURSELVES! OKAY?! CAN YOU JUST DO SOMETHING RIGHT FOR ONCE, IDIOT?!"

Before she could respond, he hung up the phone. He then preceded to turn it off so she couldn't call him back. He slipped his phone back into his pocket and began to wonder how he should react. It might be safe to check out his states, to see if they have any personifications yet...yeah. He'd do that next.

After ordering a BigMac. He was hungry, and his Chinese food was about an hour away.

Lauren, Matt, and Gilbert were all together in a very large mall, taking Lauren to different places to find clothes. She found seven days' worth of pants, shirts, socks, underwear, and three different pairs of shoes-sneakers, boots, and dress shoes. She found three dresses she liked. They were all fairly identical-poofy shoulders, bows around the waists and necks, but one was black-purple, light purple, and fire-orange. Another was midnight blue, sky blue, ocean blue, and white. The third was black-purple, navy blue, sky blue, and gold.

"A-Are th-these good?" Matthew asked while Lauren held the clothes to her chest. She was barely visible under the mountain of clothes. Sounding muffled, the Canadian said, "Yes, thank you. But..."

Matthew tilted his head to the side, asking, "But, what?"

She crept over to him. She pressed her right shoulder to his, so she could see him, and she stood on her tip toes, whispering into his ear, "I need a bra..."

Her brother's face turned red. Gilbert didn't hear what was said, but he could tell by the red on the innocent Canadian's face that something was up. Crossing his arms over his chest, he asked, "Vhat? Bras?"

Now Lauren's face was red, and she curtly nodded around the pile of clothes. Gilbert laughed triumphantly, "Kesesesese~! I can take you eef Mattie isn't up to eet?"

Although he wasn't pleased that Gilbert would willingly take Lauren shopping for bras, Matthew knew that he would be no help in that area of expertise. He gulped, nodding, and said, "Y-Yes. Lauren, y-you go w-with Gilbert."

Trusting her brother's judgement, Lauren asked Matthew to hold her clothes while she went to the bra section with Gilbert. Matthew took her clothes and she cheerily said, "Bye-bye~ see ya later!" and followed Gilbert. Gilbert wasn't so very awkward in the women's underwear section of a store, but down a "girl's" section? Antonio might be used to that, but Gilbert certainly wasn't. He wouldn't tell Lauren or Matthew that, that was for sure! They would doubt his awesomeness.

They entered the section, and Gilbert re-crossed his arms again and told Lauren, "Vell, find somezing zat should fit."

Lauren was awkward-maybe moreso than Matt would have been. She looked around uncomfortably at all the bras. None of them actually looked like they would fit. How would she know if a bra fit, anyway? About a minute of uncomfortableness went by, when Gilbert finally asked, "Vhat? Do you not know vhat size you are?"

Sheepishly looking at him, Lauren nodded and murmured, "Yes, sir."

Groaning, Gilbert said, "Fine." He tried to sound un-excited by this as he said, "Take off your jacket so I might be able to see vhat size you are."

Feeling a little awkward, Lauren unzipped her jacket. The zipping sounded goofy, so she zipped it back up. Then down. Then up. She was zipping to a funny rhythm, imagining that the zipper must've been one of the best inventions ever. Not only did it help keep your clothes on, but it was also musical!

_What is this?_ Gilbert thought in German. "Um...can you just unzeep your jacket already?"

Lauren jumped, surprised and embarassed, and took off her jacket. Her face was hot, from both being stupid and from being about to be inspected by a guy. Gilbert forced a completely serious face as he looked at Lauren. Her starry-night shirt was tight on her body, giving him a good idea of what she looked like. She definitely had the body of a Miss Yekaterina Braginskaya. Yekaterina had large breasts due to the fact of her agriculture in the Ukraine, so maybe Lauren's breasts meant something? Well, Gilbert didn't care. Over-analysing things in the presence of a hot chick was unawesome. He told her, "I zink you are a D."

"_DEE_?!" Lauren gasped, eyes wide. She didn't know much about bras, but D was definately large. How could she wear a large bra?

Gilbert nodded and said, "_Ja_, you are definitely a D. None of these little girl bras vill fit you. Kesesesesesese~, let's go find somezing zat vill fit."

He grabbed onto Lauren't wrist, jacket in other hand, and began to drag her away. Gilbert dragged her out of the store they were in, and they headed up some escalators. Lauren felt awkward among the crowd, and having Gilbert's hand so close to hers. The good thing was, though, as long as he was holding onto her, then she couldn't get lost among everybody.

They rushed into a place that Lauren hadn't time to read the name of. She noticed, though, that the pictures by the door were of attractive women in their underwear striking poses. Lauren felt awkward, and as they entered inside, Gilbert let go of her arm, saying, "You can stay here vhile I go find a couple bras for you."

The German then preceded to leave her standing between a wall of almost-naked women and a rack of skimpy underwear with a half-naked manikin. Lauren stared completely still for a moment, wishing to disappear. She pulled her jacket over her arms and zipped it up. Softly and slowly, as though playing a death march, she played with the zipper. What must've been only a few moments felt like hours. Suddenly, behind her, Lauren heard a French voice-the accent different than the other French voices she heard-saying, "_Excuse me, but what is such a pretty young lady doing in here alone?"_

Lauren jumped in fear and turned around to face the voice. A tall blonde man with hair like Matt's stood there. He had blue eyes, only slightly darker than Lauren's, and he had a bitof a beard. He was dressed elegantly, yet not something crazy, like something men wear to balls. Behind him, a dark-skinned man stood. He had dark hair and pretty green eyes, and he seemed friendly enough, although Lauren was wary.

"_Well_?" the blonde man asked, "_Are you alone, little one_?"

Gulping, Lauren said clearly in French, "_No, I am not._"

The darker man said in French with a Spanish accent, "_Ah, you are not really a little one, are you?_" He seemed cheery, yet concerned. "_I know children, and you are not that little, are you?_"

What did Lauren do in such a situation? Be wary of strangers, yes, but these were two, tall, obviously well-fit strange men, and there was a rack of underwear stopping her from going anywhere.

"_Non,_" the French man said. "_She isn't that young, but she isn't really eighteen yet, are you?_"

A wonderously familiar laugh announced Gilbert's arrival, "Kesesesese, Lauren, I got some awesome bras for you~!"

Well, at least Gilbert was _there_. His announcement meant that even though he was embarassing, he was there all the same.

The pale, red-eyed German walked up, holding a plastic bag. He eyed the two men and gasped, "FRANCIS! ANTONIO!"

Lauren watched as the three guys hugged. The Spanish one, presumably Antonio, asked, "Gil, do you know this girl?"

Gilbert nodded, wrapping his right arm around Lauren's shoulders, "Of course I do! I'm awesome; I know everyone worth knowing! This is Lauren, who is Quebec!"

Francis's eyes widened, and he breathed, "_Sacre bleu_! Quebec! Wow, Mattie and I have a sister!"

The girl's eyes widened. This guy referred to her as his sister? "Are you...France?"

_"Oui!"_ the man said, snatching up her hand and kissing it. "And since you are Quebec, you will be at the next World Meeting, _non_? If so, then you can sit by me~!"

Without realizing it, Lauren said, "And get herpies? Sorry."

Antonio and Gilbert laughed, smacking the denied Francis on the back repeatedly as he hung his head. Gulping, Lauren asked Gilbert softly, "M-Mister Gilbert, can we go back? M-Matt might be worried."

Gilbert laughed and said, "Why so un-awesome? These are my friends! Matthew will understand, right, Francis?"

Francis nodded and said, "_Oui_, Mathieu was such an understanding child, ohonhonhonhon~!"

The German stole a glance down at Lauren. He saw her blue eyes staring up at him, and he realized that he couldn't stand that un-awesome stare. She looked like a wounded puppy. He felt suddenly really awkward, sweat beading down his neck. Not awesome. He said, "Uh, okay. Let's go."

Lauren beamed up at him, and Gilbert said farewell to his friends. Lauren also politely said goodbye, although she wasn't pleased, and followed Gilbert closely. Once finding Matt in the exact same place as before, they headed back to the inn.


	6. Chapter 6 - The Germanic Family

Matthew was busy making Lauren's room clean. They headed back to Drumheller after a night and a half, and the next day after that, the Canadian decided that Lauren should sleep in her own room. Lauren helped for the fist few minutes, then became "tuckered out" as she referred to it, then just jumped onto her new bed and fell asleep. She seemed to be really lazy, like Heracles, a certain Greek that Matthew knew from his business as a nation.

Lauren had a dreamless sleep, one of those sleeps where you close your eyes then open them immediately, but hours have gone by between that split-second length of time. Matthew was amazed at how cute Lauren looked when she slept. She was wearing a normal t-shirt with normal jeans, normal sneakers, and her hair down like usual. Lauren's t-shirt, though, wasn't all that normal; it had the design of a British Flag on it. Matthew wasn't bothered by it, and it did look cute on her, and even American girls wore shirts with English flags on them-he saw it before, no lie-but the fact that Lauren wasn't English made the shirt bother him. You didn't normally find Ludwig Beilschmidt wearing a shirt with an American flag on it.

Matthew threw some old scrap papers into a white, lightly-scented garbage bag, until the room looked presentable. Now that it was clean, Lauren could decorate it as she pleased.

Standing in the doorway, a white polar bear, Kumajiro, stood. Matthew saw the bear and gasped, saying in his soft voice, "K-Kumajiro! I-I'm s-sorry for l-leaving you!"

"Who are you?"

_I'm forgiven,_ Matt thought sadly. He left the room, closing the door behind him.

Gilbert was on his computer, talking to one of his now-blessed fans, "_Yeah, I know, I'm that awesome, huh? Well, my bro, Ludtz, is coming over the day, and I know I should tell Matt, but this will be an awesome surprise when he shows up!_"

Matthew knocked on his door, and Gilbert nearly jumped, surprised. Was it possible that Matthew could somehow know what he was thinking? No way, he wasn't awesome enough.

The German got up, answering the door, with Matt standing there, polar bear in his arms. Looking Gilbert directly in the eyes, Matthew said, "I'm going to go to town for groceries, gas, to check the mail, and everything." Still not looking down, Matt added, "And put some pants before you leave this room. Lauren isn't going to be seeing you in your underwear."

Abruptly, the Canadian closed the door in Gilbert's face. Gilbert huffed, folding his arms over his chest, and thought, _Geez, so unawesome._ He turned around and finished his blog. Then he actually got up to put on some pants-he actually didn't want Lauren to see him in his underwear, mainly because if she saw, she would tell Matthew, and last month's hockey game would be repeated.

Once "properly" dressed, Gilbert headed outside into the hallway and down the stairs. His room was a whole story above Matt's room, and two whole stories above Lauren's room. He went down into the living room and sat down on the sofa. He was watching some show called Lost Girl on the science-fiction channel, when about thirty minutes later, Lauren came walking out from down the hall, yawning and stretching as she walked, and into the living room. She and Gilbert merely stared at each other as she crossed in front of him to get to the kitchen. Gilbert's view now blocked by the bar, he turned his attention back to the TV.

About ten minutes later, Lauren came walking into the living room, a plate with a really cheesey grilled cheese sandwich on it in her hands, and she sheepishly asked Gilbert, "Can I sit by you, sir?"

_Sir?_ Gilbert wondered, also wondering why he never noticed her title for him. He merely shrugged and said, "Fine, soak up ze awesomeness."

"Thank you," she said and sat down at the right arm of the sofa, Gilbert at the left. Gilbert eyed her distance and asked, "Hey, vhy did you ask if you could seet by my if you vere going to sit all the vay over zere?"

Lauren furrowed her eyebrows at him, obviously confused. What did he mean, "all the wat over there"? She asked, "What do you mean?" _Do I seriously just quote my own thoughts?_

Gilbert crossed his arms, saying, "_Vell_, sitting zat distance avay ist not sitting next to somebody. Zis" he jumped over into her personal bubble "ist sitting next to somebody."

Instantly hot, Lauren avoided eye contact, Gilbert pressing right against her. Lauren said plainly, "I got it, thank you, sir."

Against her wishes, Gilbert didn't move. Maybe he was only lingering? Well, the lingering finally lasted for about a minute before Lauren continued to eat her sandwich, thinking to herself, _Pretty please, scootch back over? Please? Will it work in Engrish? Prease, Mister Girbert? Girbert Beirschmidt? Prease? Ret me eat my sandwich, prease, in peace..._

After trying French, Gilbert still lingered, casually watching TV. There was a commerical on, advertising some movie called _Eight Legged Freaks_, and Gilbert threw his right arm around Lauren's shoulders, asking, "Do you zink zat vill be a good movie?"

_Burr crap_, Lauren thought, and said, "Uh-uh, um..it's about giant spiders, but, the animation looks terrible, sir."

"You are right," Gilbert said. "Ze special effects are not nearly as awesome as zey should be."

Lauren felt like a mean jerk for thinking, _Go away now?_ and instantly hated herself for it. Gilbert, in fact, did not go away. He loitered around Lauren's personal bubble, until she got up to put her plate in the sink. She questioned herself if it would be rude to sit further away from him, or if he just wouldn't care.

There was a knock on the door, and as Lauren heard the sofa cushions sort of squeak, she called, "I'll get it!"

"_Danke_," Gilbert said casually. Lauren rushed to the door and unlocked it, following quickly with opening the large oak, finely carved piece of art.

A tall, well-built blonde man stood there. He had his hair slicked back, pale blue eyes looking at her with surprise, as though he had expected someone else, which was _higgghly_ likely. Lauren blinked, asking with a faint tremor in her voice, "Excuse me, what do you need?"

Thoughts entering her head, Lauren found herself grinning at the thought that he could be some missionary...that would make her laugh, maybe. The man said in a gruff, yet not unkind, voice with an accent similar to Gilbert's, "_Ja_, ist Gilbert Beilschmidt here?"

"BRUDER!" Gilbert's excited voice cut through the air, and he came flying out from around the corner, past Lauren and hugging the tall man. Lauren backed up slowly, trying not to stare and look disrespectful.

Gilbert looked around at Lauren and said, "Zis ist my baby bro, Ludwig!"

"_Baby_?" Lauren found herself pondering aloud, seeing the much-taller Ludwig steam at his brother's hug. Isn't the _older_ sibling supposed to be more mature?

Ludwig noticed how "well-dressed" Gilbert was, first of all. Gilbert usually wore very casual things, like t-shirts and jeans, yet he wore neatly ironed black pants, black shoes, and a black button-up shirt. Quickly ignoring this, Ludwig asked as politely as possible, "Who ist zis young lady?"

Gilbert laughed, saying, "Zis is Lauren, who is Mattie's little sister, Quebec! Say somezing French, Quebby!"

Face turning red, she stammered, "_Très bien... Je m'appelle Lauren_..."

"Kesesesese, don't sound so threeled, Lauren!"

"_Desolé, _sir_._..."

Gilbert thought it was interesting that "sir" never changed from English, no matter what language she was speaking. It wasn't awesome to think about unawesome things like that, so Gilbert ignored her, saying to Ludwig, "_Ja_, now, vhat have you brought me~?"

Folding his arms, Ludwig asked, "Vhy vould I bring you anyzing?"

"Gilbert?!"

The obnoxious German froze, hearing the familiar accented female voice. He gasped, saying, "ELIZABETA?!"

Lauren could see the small, pale hairs on the back of Gilbert's neck stand on end. She didn't have any way of hearing him think, "_Wait, if she's here, then Roderick..._"

"Zat car ride vas horrible" a very gay accent huffed. Two people, a pretty young woman with a flower in her pale brown hair and a man with Beethoven-like dark brown hair came up. Gilbert groaned, red eyes wide. Well, at least he had a chance to tick them off.

Now feeling tention in the air and feeling awkward at being surrounded by so many strangers, Lauren murmured "excuse me" and began to walk away.

Gilbert saw her begin to creep away out of the corner of his eye, and he gasped, "Oh no you don't!" He grabbed onto her left elbow, saying, "Kesesese, you get to meet my _friends!"_

The pretty woman reached the doorway first, smiling brightly at Lauren, and she said in a slight goofy, yet pretty, accent, "Hello, who might you be?"

"Lauren," Lauren said, curtly bowing her head. Her cheeks became hot, and when the last man appeared, she couldn't help but glance at his pretty eyes. He said in the same weird accent as before, "Ugh, are we going to freeze up Mister Villiam's house or are ve going to go een or out?"

Loudly, Gilbert said, "Come in, Roderick _Österreich_!"

Making Lauren feel even hotter, Gilbert hadn't yet let go of her elbow. As that occurred, Elizabeta took Lauren's right hand in both of her hands, saying cheerily, "You must be Quebec, yes?"

Nodding, Lauren stammered, "Y-Yes, ma'am."

"Oh, call me Lizzie!" Elizabeta said. Lauren was about to reply when Ludwig interrupted, saying, "I vill do some vork around here to pay for stay."

_Stay?_ Lauren questioned. Gilbert laughed, saying, "Lauren, your face looks so unawesome! Kesesese, close your mouthz before a fly enters!"

Instantly shutting her jaw, Gilbert continued, "_Ja_, I forgot to tell Lauren! You are staying ze night-but vhy are you two" his voice sounded somewhat harsh in direction to Elizabeta and Roderick "here?"

Ludwig answered for him, saying, "Zey intercepted me and promised to do vork to pay for the night's stay."

Not hearing any of this, Lauren kept thinking to herself, did Matt know? Likely not, or else he would've told her, but then again, how could Gilbert invite people over without Matt's permission? It wasn't his house to invite people into-in fact, it was more of Lauren's house than Gilbert's...

"Vell?" Ludwig's voice interrupted into Lauren's thoughts. _Oh no, what'd he say to me?!_ "Miss Lauren, vhat vork should ve do?"

The Canadian's eyes widened. Oh, he was asking what she suggested he and his friends do...

_I have to make a decision?!_ Lauren was luckily looking calm, and she said, "Well, the kitchen is kind of dirty, and the dishes need to be done...um, the floor out here could be swept, the rug could be vacuumed, and, um..." She lifted her eyes up to the finely-dressed Roderick, and imagined his professional career, instantly saying, "Music could help us work harder."

Roderick stared her in the eyes, obviously surprised, when Gilbert said, "Alright, I can go get my awesome playlist!"

Just before he started racing away, Lauren jumped in front of him, saying, "Please wait, sir! Mister Roderick, Missus Elizabeta, there are some instruments in the back room down the hall...if you can play them, Mister Roderick, would you like to play for us instead of work?"

Gilbert looked like he was ready to shoot himself, while Elizabeta said, "Zat sounds vonderful! Mister Roderick, why don't you go see what Matthew has?"

Almost arrogantly, the formal man agreed, and Lauren led him down the hallway. She awkwardly commented to him, "You dress very elegantly, probably the best I've seen."

"Zank you," the Austrian said. Lauren lead him into the room. A Grand Piano was in the center, several violin-like instruments at the far wall, and some drums on the other end of the room. Roderick seemed mesmerized by the piano, and he sat down at it, gently running his hands over the keys, and he says, "Zis piano is very fine, and in such good condition for vhat looks so old..."

Smiling, Lauren said, "Matthew says that he checks up on all of his instruments weekly, and often plays them several times a week, so neither he or the instruments become rusty."

Roderick nodded, beginning to play a few beautiful notes on the piano. Lauren was held at awe by the sound, and he said, "I vould love to play zis, but a violin vould be easier for me to bring out to play..."

Hurriedly, Lauren knew that she had to hear the piano, so she said in a rush, "I can bring the piano out. I-It has wheels. I can push it."

Looking at her in disbelief, Roderick asked, "You can?"

"Yes, sir," she said. "I can, as long as you play the prettiest piece that you know."

Roderick nodded and said, "I can do zat. Vill you need help push-"

Before he could finish speaking, Lauren began moving the piano away from him. He took the bench and followed her. She showed almost no strain against the piano's weight, and when they came rolling into the living room, Elizabeta cheered, "Lauren, you are so strong! Now, Roderick, why did you not help her?"

As he was about to reply to the scolding, Lauren interrupted, saying, "I insisted on doing this myself, ma'a-um, Lizzie."

Ludwig sighed, saying, "All iz vell un good, now let us all start vorking. I vill take the kitchen, und Elizabeta, you handle the floors."

"I can find you a mop," Lauren suggested to Elizabeta, and they headed off together to start cleaning as Ludwig entered the kitchen, Roderick starting to play the piano.

***AUTHOR'S NOTE***

**This is not a very productive chapter, I don't care, okay? Even nations have boring days, so chill...**


	7. Chapter 7 - Problems of Germanic Sizes

Lauren found a broom, a dustpan, and a mop for herself and Elizabeta. Lauren commented, "We should sweep before mopping."

"Good idea," Elizabeta commented. As they headed down the hall, Gilbert stalked past them, not glancing at them. Elizabeta huffed, murmuring under her voice, "Douche."

Noticing Lauren's wide-eyed stare, Elizabeta quickly apologized, "Sorry, it's just, we used to be friends."

"That's okay," Lauren said. Really, it didn't bother her-she was sure that a lot of people called him "douche".

They came back to the living room, Roderick playing Beethoven's piece, Symphony Nine. It sounded beautiful. Elizabeta asked Lauren, "Would you like to help with the sweeping?"

Lauren nodded and said, "I will hold the pan."

Getting onto her knees, Lauren kept tilting the pan up and down according to what Elizabeta said, and as they were about halfway done with the living room, Gilbert reappeared. He held a very beautiful violin in one hand, the bow in the other, and he said loudly, "KESESESESE, RODERICK, MY VIOLIN IS MORE AWESOME ZAN YOUR PIANO!"

Roderick's eyes widened, then his eyebrows furrowed in a scowl. He began to play something that Lauren had never heard before, and Gilbert reacted by playing something very fast-paced and dramatic on his violin. Gilbert actually danced to his own beat, Roderick jamming out to his own music. Roderick's music was like a magic spell used to tame a hurricane, while Gilbert's music was like a spell used to slay dragons.

Glancing at the two with an odd look in her eyes, Elizabeta whispered to Lauren, "Just go into ze keetchen to help Mister Ludwig. I vill clean zis up on my own."

Lauren curtly nodded, obeying the older woman. She stood awkwardly to Ludwig's left, saying softly, "I've come to help you with the dishes, sir."

"Zank you," the German said. As Lauren began to rinse what he handed her, she asked, "What is 'thank you' in German?"

Casually, Ludwig said, "_Danke_ means 'thanks'. '_Vielen_ _Dank_' means 'Thanks very much'. German is '_Deutsch_' und Germany ist '_Deutschland_'. 'My' ist '_Mein_', 'no' ist '_nein_', und 'yes' ist '_ja_'. 'Not' ist '_nicht_', und 'good' ist '_gut_'. You say '_sehr_ _gut_' for 'very good'."

He handed her a large plate. Lauren rinsed it thouroughly then proceded to place it in the dish drainer. Ludwig continued, saying, "'Vhat' ist '_was_'. 'Is' ist '_ist_." (lol, a whole sentence of just one word repeated three times!)

Lauren smiled, saying, "_Vielen Dank_...Mister Beilschmidt...what is 'Mister'?"

"Herr."

"_Vielen Dank, Herr Beilschmidt...so, mein Deutsch ist nicht sehr gut...?_"

Ludwig was surprised at how well she caught on. She had an obvious accent when she spoke, and it was fairly thick and her way of speaking was shy and awkward, yet she remembered the general rules well. Maybe it made sense; she was closely related to Francis, who was Ludwig's neighbor.

When they finished the dishes, Ludwig sent her away to help Elizabeta. Lauren obeyed, thanking him in English, then found some sponges to help Elizabeta with her mopping. She was sure to walk on the dry areas of the floor, and she asked Elizabeta softly, "May I help?"

Gilbert made a very loud, raggedy-sounding note on the violin that reminded Lauren of _The Devil Went Down to Georgia_, while Roderick countered that with a dramatic sound like the organ music from _The Phantom of the Opera_. While performing his fiddle-routine, Gilbert did a Spiderman-backflip, leaning backwards so far that the back of his head almost touched the floor.

Elizabeta nodded, pleased that Lauren was so helpful without even being asked, and she said, "Sure, but you can take the mop if you vant, and _I_ can scrub the floor with my hands."

Shaking her head, Lauren said awkwardly, "Um, I can scrub the floor with my hands...I'm closer to the floor, after all."

Laughing, Elizabeta gently rubbed the top of Lauren's head, saying, "You're so cute! Okay, thank you!"

Lauren rolled up her sleeves to her elbows and dipped the sponges into the bucket that Elizabeta used. She headed over to scrub the far end of the floor while Elizabeta took the other end. Gilbert and Roderick finally finished their classical-battle, and Gilbert sighed, saying, "Wow, zat vas a lot of vork. I vore out my awesomeness."

He strolled past Lauren and down the hallway, going to go put his violin up. When he came back, he found Lauren scrubbing visciously at a stain on the floor, on her hands and knees. Now that Gilbert thought about it, didn't he cause that stain somehow? Meh, he didn't really care.

Wait a moment-why was Lauren working her butt off when she lived here? Gilbert could understand if she needed to work to stay in that house, because it kinda made sense. But she lived there, and the others were working for their stay!

"Lowren," Gilbert said, stopping to stand behind Lauren. She jumped in surprise, looking over her shoulder at him. She said, "Oh, yes, sir?"

Gilbert asked her, "Vhy are you cleaning ze floor?"

She just stared at him for a moment, then she asked, "Um, what do you mean?"

"Zat's unawesome," Gilbert explained, grabbing onto her left elbow again. She managed to stop herself from flinching away, and Gilbert continued, saying, "Let zem do zeir own vork. You are just making it easier for zem."

"Yeah," Lauren said. "I want to help..."

Who would _want_ to work? Gilbert shook his head, saying, "Roderick needs to vork if he is going to stay!"

"He is," Lauren said, "because working is more fun with music."

"I can play music!" Gilbert insisted, "Didn't you hear my awesome violin earlier?"

"Yes, I did," Lauren said, Gilbert now pulling her to her feet. He told her, "Come on, let's do somezing awesome!"

Elizabeta noticed this and headed over, holding the mop in an almost defensive way. She would much prefer a frying pan or skillet, but this was good. Sounding cheerily, she decided to save Lauren by asking, "Lauren, do you vant to help me dust some zings?"

Gilbert yanked Lauren to his right side, and she stiffened up slightly, surprised, as Gilbert said, "Come on, _mein schatz_, ve can do some awesome stuff vithout zese guys!"

The Hungarian's eyes widened, and she asked in disbelief, "_'Mein schatz'_? Gilbert, let her go. If she doesn't vant to go vith you, zen she doesn't need to."

"She _does_ vant to come vith the awesome me!" Gilbert insisted, looking down at Lauren as he asked, "Right, Lowren?"

Ludwig came marching up, folding his arms over his chest, and he said, "Gilbert, let her go, now. You are making everyzing uncomfortable."

Elizabeta took Lauren's hands in hers, and she pulled her away, managing to keep a cheery mood which made everything feel better as she said, "Come on, Lauren, do you vant to show me your room?"

Lauren curled her fingers around Elizabeta's mop, thinking to herself, _If they ask who I want to be with, I'm going to say Monsieur Mop..._

Gilbert grabbed Lauren from behind, saying, "KESESESE, YOU'RE COMING VITHZ ME!"

Lauren screeched, ripping the mop out of Elizabeta's hands, and, clenching her eyes shut, swung it around blindly. She heard several harsh things in German that sounded like cuss words, coming from several voices, and Gilbert dropped her. Lauren opened her eyes and saw that she had hit both of the Beilschmidt Brothers, breaking Ludwig's nose and having smacked Gilbert's left eye.

"I'M SO SORRY!" Lauren gasped in surprise, dropping the mop and hugging her knees. She started crying over hitting people, afraid that they would hate her and think that she was some sort of monster. Elizabeta took Lauren into the bathroom to clean up her face from the tears and comfort her, while Gilbert put an ice pack on his eye and Ludwig covered his face with a pile of paper towels. Roderick was huffing in the background, scolding Gilbert for causing this mess.


	8. Chapter 8 - Beginning of the Meeting

**Prepare to meet Alfred F. Jones' family!**

When Matthew came home, he was astounded. Well, the house was clean, but Lauren was secluded and gloomy, and not to mention the Germanic family was gathered together in his living room, arguing.

He actually raised his voice to a shouting level when he gasped, "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!"

This surprised the Germanics, and Ludwig apologized deeply, saying, "Ve are sorry, Mister Villiams. Ve zought zat Gilbert told you."

Matthew couldn't believe this. Why could Gilbert neglect to tell him everything? Elizabeta clasped her hands together and said, "I'm sorry, Meester Villiams! Ve have been doing vork to pay until the Vorld Meeting! Vhat else can ve do for you?"

Because Matthew was kind and didn't want to upset anyone further, especially Lauren, he allowed them to stay, _without_ the need to work. Lauren hugged him, thanking him for not kicking them out, and said that she would go to bed shortly.

Confused, Matthew asked, "Why? We haven't eaten dinner."

"I'll eat dinner," she said, "then go to bed. I'm tired, Mattie."

With a sigh, the Canadian agreed. Matthew apologized for not having enough food for the whole Germanic family, but they didn't mind, saying that they expected this and brought some food along with new changes of clothes for the next day.

Matthew headed into the kitchen to see everything nice and clean, even the counter top scrubbed shiny and clean. He made some beans and corn-odd choice, yes, but Matthew's brain was too foggy with racing thoughts to comprehend making something else.

Once he, Gilbert, and Lauren all ate, Lauren headed to bed. Matthew led the Germanics to his guest bedrooms, and they headed out to their car-or-cars to get their things. Matthew went to Lauren's bedroom and quietly knocked on the door. Lauren called for him to come in. Matthew closed the door behind him, feeling his face grow hot. He asked Lauren, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she said, sounding confused. "Why?"

Shrugging nonchalantly, Matthew said, "You just don't seem as perky as usual."

"I'm okay," she said, curling up under her blankets. She asked, "Is that World Meeting tomorrow?"

Matthew nodded, saying, "Yes."

"Can I come?"

The Canadian nodded, saying, "It's in Canada, in fact. It won't take long to drive over to the building set out just for gathering."

Lauren smiled and said, "That's good. Good night."

"Good night."

Matthew left, closing Lauren's door behind himself. Everyone started heading to bed, so he followed suit.

_Lauren felt cold, opening her eyes to find snow surrounding her on every side. She gasped, eyes widening, and got to her feet. The snow was everywhere, spanning past the horizoon on every side. Lauren could see a small, thin green line in the distance, and she began to run to it, leaving footprints in the deep snow behind her._

_Soon, she found a line of trees in front of her. Because it was certainly better looking than never-ending snow, she crept into the woods. She walked for a long time, calling out for Matthew, Gilbert, Elizabeta, Ludwig, Roderick, for anybody, yet never got an answer. _

_After a while of walking, she found a bundle of ashy, pale brown fur. Upon closer inspection, it looked like a dark-furred polar bear. When the cub lifted its head up, it had a broad face like a grizzly bear. Its muzzle was dappled in white, and its build was thick like a grizzly bear's, yet it was long and large like a polar bear. Lauren gasped, saying, "You're...a nanulak?"_

_The half-grizzly-half-polar-bear-cub yawned, staring up at her sheepishly with big black eyes. Lauren smiled, and then she asked, "What happened to your mamma and daddy?"_

_With a whimper, the cub crawled over to her on its stomach, like a dog, and nuzzled up to her ankle._

Lauren was jerked awake by Gilbert shouting down the hallway, "EVERYBODY, VAKE UP! VE MUST LEAVE FOR ZE MEETING!"

Groaning, Lauren buried her face into her pillow, wishing to sleep in. Suddenly, the German voice came from right above her, saying, "KESESESE, YOU VENT TO SLEEP EARLY, YOU SHOULD BE READY FOR VAKING UP!"

The Canadian screeched as Gilbert thrust his arms under her, yanking her into the air. Gilbert gasped, red eyes widening in surprise at how _heavy_ this girl was! Sure, Quebec was large and all, but...his awesome legs _burned_!

"LET ME GO!" Lauren screeched, jumping out of Gilbert's arms. Gilbert sighed in relief, now that the weight was off.

Before he could take a full breath, though, Lauren had appeared behind him, shoving him out of the room, saying, "OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT!"

She began repeating that chorus, but in French, as she slammed the door shut behind Gilbert, instantly locking it. Gilbert stood in the hallway, dumbfounded.

Matthew came walking up behind him, saying softly, "Th-thank you f-for waking her up."

"You're velcome," Gilbert said. "Cuz I'm awesome like zat."

Lauren, inside her room, found a midnight-purple-blue tinted dress with vertical sky blue and lighter purple stripes. She put it on, fumbling with the zipper at her back. Awkwardly, Lauren creeped into the hallway, peering about to see if Matthew was there to help. Unfortunately, he had just headed outside to start the car and warm it up.

Against her wishes, Lauren saw Gilbert heading up the stairs, back to her, and she raised her voice, saying, "Herr Gilbert?"

Surprised at the German vocabular, Gilbert froze for a moment. Then, he replied with, "_Ja_? Fraulein Lowren?"

He turned around and saw Lauren wearing one of her new dresses. She looked really good in it; it framed her body snuggly, like a glove, but she held her right arm behind her, saying, "I'm having problems zipping this. Can you help me, sir?"

"Sure," Gilbert said, walking back down the stairs to head for her. She turned around, face hot. Gilbert nonchalantly zipped up her dress and said, "You look nice in zis."

"Thank you, sir," Lauren said. Gilbert told her, "You're velcome" and continued to head back up to his room. Lauren headed inside the bottom-hall bathroom and closed the door behind her, locking it to be safe. She looked at herself in the mirror, not liking her look. Maybe Elizabeta could cut her hair? She left the restroom and headed upstairs to where Elizabeta's room had been. She found Elizabeta's room and knocked on the door. Elizabeta appeared, dressed in a pretty dress, and she asked cheerily, "Oh, Lauren, here you are! How can I help you?"

Smiling, Lauren asked, "Could you cut my hair?"

Elizabeta tilted her head to the side and said, "Sure, I vould love to! Does Matt know?"

"Yes," Lauren said. "A couple days ago, I mentioned it to him, and I want to have my hair cut this morning."

The Hungarian woman smiled and said, "Okay, zen. Follow me."

They headed toward the restroom on that level, and Elizabeta complimented Lauren's dress, "You dress is really pretty. You look nice."

Lauren smiled and said, "Thank you."

Entering the bathroom, Elizabeta said, "So not to make your dress covered in hair, I vill wrap a towel around your neck." Wrapping the towel around the Canadian's neck, she asked, "Now, how do you vant your hair to be cut?"

Staring at her reflection, Lauren said, "I want to have it to my chin, but I want hair in the front to be left alone, so I can braid it."

"Zat sounds pretty and unique!" Elizabeta said. "Do you want bangs?"

"I'll keep my bangs as they are," Lauren said.

"Okay!" Elizabeta chirped. She made Lauren hold two clumps of hair over her shoulders that would be saved for braiding. Then she continued to cut her hair, dry, by her chin. Elizabeta noticed that, in the mirror, Lauren had closed her eyes, as if not wanting to see her hair fall away.

After a little while, Elizabeta said, "Done!"

Lauren opened her eyes and gasped, staring at her reflection. She smiled and said, "So pretty!"

"Do you vant me to braid your hair, now?"

"Yes, thank you!"

Removing the towel away from Lauren's neck and dusting off extra hair, Elizabeta began to braid Lauren's two tails. Her hair was very slick and smooth, not fraying up or anything, so the braiding was done very quickly. Elizabeta tied her hair off with ponytail holders then said, "Look at you! You are so pretty!"

Lauren looked at herself in the mirror and cooed, adoring her new hair cut. She hugged Elizabeta and said, "Thank you, Lizzie!"

Her new hair cut was interesting. She had two braids over her shoulders, but the rest of her hair looked a bit like Canada's hair, but because it was darker brown, it looked a bit more like Toris's -Toris was another nation, and he was Lithuanian.

"You look so pretty!" Elizabeta repeated, and Lauren smiled. She said, "Let's go show Matthew when I put something in my hair!"

They left the bathroom, and Lauren headed to her room. When she reappeared, she had tied a dark purple-blue ribbon onto either braid, and she had put a ribbon-like thing on her head, only it was shaped like a golden flower, the same shade of yellow as her glasses. Elizabeta smiled and said, "Now you look even prettier!"

Lauren smiled, cheeks turning warm and pink. Lauren now had two ahoges-one on top of her head, long and thin, that looked a bit like a stretched-out version as Alfred F. Jones' ahoge. She also had a long, drooping ahoge to the side of her head, like Matthew's, only that it didn't have a little curl in it.

Matthew came walking up, surprised when he saw Lauren. He gasped, eyes wide. Lauren looked very pretty, not to mention mature. Her dress was similar to Nataliya Arlovskaya's dress, which was almost scary, but she had Matthew's hair and ahoge, although she had an extra Alfred-like ahoge. Matthew smiled, saying softly, "W-Wow, Lauren...you l-look so pretty..."

"Thank you!" Lauren said, wrapping her arms around Matt in a hug.

Face turning hot, Matthew sheepishly smiled and pulled away. He told her, "We're about ready to g-go. A-Are you ready?"

Lauren nodded and said, "Yeah, thank you."

They all then left. There was enough room in the back of Matthew's car for four people to sit, so Matthew drove, Ludwig sitting up front after much arguing with Gilbert, then Gilbert, Roderick, Elizabeta, and Lauren sat in the back.

Lauren sat to Elizabeta's right, who was to Roderick's right, who was to Gilbert's right. Elizabeta and Lauren were chatting happily, Elizabeta saying, "I zink you are going to like the nations! Nations are odd bunches, but zey're mainly nice!"

With a slight tilt of her head, Lauren asked, "What happens when a country goes to war? How do you guys react?"

Elizabeta sighed and said, "By fighting, obviously. It is sad, but usually, us nations are friends again after zat var ends or somezing."

Smiling, Lauren said, "That's nice!" She almost wondered why Gilbert was coming along if he wasn't a nation, and thought about asking Elizabeta about it, but, after all, Quebec wasn't its own nation. She would be hypoctritical if she were to question Gilbert.

Elizabeta told Lauren about the nations' personalities and relations to other countries. She explained which nations were friends to what other nations, who to be wary of and what to expect. "Ivan Braginski, Russia, might ask you if you vant to 'become vun' vith him. Just valk avay; usually he doesn't follow. Francis Bonnefoy, France, is kind of a pervert; stay avay."

Lauren realized that she already met him, and wished that she'd gotten a warning sooner. Elizabeta continued, saying, "Antonio, Spain, is also a bit of a pervert, so stay avay from him, too. Don't get between Ivan and his sister, Nataliya, either, because Nataliya is unhealthily obsessed vith Ivan...um, Alfred, Matt's brother, is kind of obnoxious...Lovino, South Italy, has a potty mouth...North Italy, Feliciano, is a little puppy dog...really, zere aren't that many people to be vary of."

After running through other nations, Matthew told everyone in the back seat, "We're h-here."

"YAYYYYY!" Lauren and Elizabeta cooed, Elizabeta holding onto Lauren's left wrist to throw her hands in the air in excitement.

Gilbert smiled, throwing his arm over Roderick's neck and said something in German, in which Roderick replied in English, "Get avay!"

Lauren held Elizabeta's hand as they exited the car, and she liked feeling like she had a sister, Matt as her brother. The building was huge, but it was squat, like a pancake. Lauren thought it ironic-Matthew being Canadian and all-and smiled broadly. Elizabeta pointed to all of the parked cars and said, "Look! Some othzer nations beat us!"

Once inside, Gilbert peeled away to find Francis and Toni. There were a whole bunch of people in there-male and female, although there weren't that many females. Lauren instantly shrunk closer to Elizabeta, feeling awkward and insecure around so many eyes, even if they weren't looking at her.

Elizabeta sensed this and wanted Lauren to feel more welcome, so she said, "Come follow me and meet some friendly countries!"

She pulled Lauren deeper into the many people, and she stopped in front of a man wearing a fancy black suit with light blonde hair, his back to them. Elizabeta said, "Hello, Arthur!"

Arthur turned around, about to greet Elizabeta, when he became surprised at the young girl standing next to her. The girl was about sixteen or so, glasses, and had short hair, like Toris's hair, but with two long braids in front of her hair. She wore a fancy dress that reminded Arthur of a candy wrapper, and he said, "Hello, Elizabeta. Who is with you?"

The young girl held out her hand for a handshake, saying firmly, "My name is Lauren. Nice to meet you; I'm Quebec."

_Quebec?_ Arthur shook her hand and introduced himself as the UK, wondering if Lauren would be more like Matthew or Francis. If all went well, she'd be like Matthew.

Matthew came walking up, Arthur only noticing him because Lauren hugged him happily. Matthew asked softly, "H-Have you met m-my little s-sister?"

The Brit nodded and said, "Yes, she is charming."

Lauren didn't hear what the two said next, because she was staring at Arthur's big green eyes. His eyes were so sparkly and bright, yet calm and intelligent. She also liked his eyebrows. Not many people had eyebrows like that, right? Those eyebrows were fuzzy...

"YO, BRITISH DUDE!" An obnoxious young man wearing a bomber jacket appeared behind Arthur, throwing his arm over his shoulder. He said, "I TOTALLY WANTED YOU TO HAVE THE HONOR OF BEING THEN FIRST TO MEET MAH STATES, SO LOOK AT THEM! WE'VE GOT ILLINOIS, TEXAS, MAINE, CALIFORNIA, LOUISIANA, AND ARKANSAS, YO!"

Lauren assumed that this man was Alfred, seeing as he had an American accent and spoke about states. He gestured behind himself, and six young adults stepped out from behind him. Two guys and four girls.

"This is Texas, as you know!" Alfred gestured to the eighteen-year-old blonde, hair like Francis's, with tan skin, brown eyes, and a cowboy hat. Hugh struck a pose, holding out his hands as if firing two pistols. "His name is Hugh Rangier! And this totally Illinois, whose a stick in the mud like you! He's Kurt Illini Pheizer!" There was a young man, about eighteen as well, with straight, light blonde hair cut neatly into straight bangs above his blonde eyebrows. He had light pink-purple eyes, like a mix between red and light blue. He wore a black-white-and-orange button-up shirt tucked into black dress pants, a contrast to Hugh's faded jeans and flannel shirt. Kurt muttered, "Call me Kurtis, please" as he rolled his eyes.

"This is Maine! She's Jennifer Robinson!" Maine smiled, waving cheerily. She wore a turtle-neck dark purple sweater, glasses similar to Alfred's, and had an identical ahoge. Jennifer had blue-green eyes, somewhat bushy eyebrows like Arthur, and had neat, short hair like Arthur's. She looked to be about twenty years old.

"This is California, dude! She's Angelica Lorence!" Angelica was dressed oddly skimpily for winter, wearing a V-neck shirt that showed her abdomine, which showed a ring in her belly button. Angelica looked to be about nineteen or so, and she wore a lot of obvious make-up on her face. She had sharp eyebrows that appeared to be waked, and she pursed her lips like a duck bill as she thrust her hips to the side.

"This is Louisiana! This is Lillian Bonnefette!" Lillian, about seventeen, rolled her eyes lightheartedly, unlike Kurt's sincere displeasure, and said, "It's Bon-ah-fay, bro!" She was African-American, missing her upper left canine tooth. She had long black lashes and bright blue eyes. She wore colorful beads around her long neck, and she wore a shirt with a Louisiana state flag on it, and she wore torn-up short-jeans, frayed by her knees. Her hair was cut similar to Francis's hair, although her hair was dark brown-black.

Alfred placed his hands on his hips, saying cheerily, "Aren't my states awesome-looking?"

"You forgot me," a young dark-skinned girl said, standing between Lillian and Hugh. She was about seventeen and had long black hair with obvious signs of being highlighted blonde at the bottom, as though the highlights grew out. She didn't look exotic; in fact, she looked bland. She looked Native American, her hair tied into a single, thick braid at her back. Lauren envied how dark her hair was, and how good she looked in a plain white t-shirt and dark blue jeans. She said, "I'm Addison Urkinsau, from Arkansas."

Lauren smiled, shaking Addison's hand, and said, "I'm Lauren...I don't know my last name, but I'm Quebec."

"QUEBEC?!" Lillian gasped, throwing her arm around Lauren's shoulder. She said in her fancy accent, "TOTALLY COOL, ANOTHER FRENCH ONE! DO YOU HAVE MY BUTT?"

Lauren squeaked as Lillian slapped her hind end, making her jump. Lillian laughed, and Addison punched Lillian in the shoulder, saying, "Rude! You know how sick that be?"

"Is," Lauren couldn't help but correct. Arthur, although nearly swamped by Alfred saying something hurriedly, had heard the mistake in grammar and had been about to correct it. Lauren said, "Sorry, Addison, but you should have said 'Sick that is'."

Addison gasped, eyes wide, and said, "I am soooooo sorry! A lot of young Arkansans-even the adults!-find it hard to use correct English and think that it's cool, or they're saying it wrong to be cool!"

Kurt sighed, folding his arms across his broad chest, and said, "Don't I know it..." he couldn't resist looking at Lauren's chest, but respectfully looked her in the eyes as he said, "My people think that they sound 'ghetto' if they speak like that. As if they forget what a ghetto really is!"

Lillian had disappeared, as did Hugh and Angelica, until Lillian's Louisianan accent appeared out from behind Lauren, saying, "YO FANKIE, LOOK AT YO SISTA!"

Francis's voice came from behind Lauren, saying, "Ohohohohon, you look even better than you did last time I saw you!"

Sending out a silent pray that consisted of one name, "_LIZZIE?!_" Lauren turned around calmly, smiling at Francis. He was dressed nicely, even nicer than he was last time. He wore a red, halfway-buttoned-up-button-up shirt, white coat over it. He smelled thickly of wine and cologne, and Lauren forced the smile as she said, "Nice to meet you again."

It wasn't hard to smile, thinking of him as a nice country, France, that nearly nobody hated. Everybody wants to go to France, thus Francis can't be that bad, outside of the fact that he was scary. Everybody was scary to Lauren, except for Matthew, Alfred, Elizabeta, and the states. Gilbert wasn't really scary, but he wasn't part of the family. Wait, wasn't France related to Quebec? So Francis was part of Lauren's family; that's good.

"It is very nice to meet you too," Francis said, taking Lauren's hand in his and kissing it. "_Vous êtes très jolie_~" ("You are very beautiful~")

Lauren's face turned pink, and Francis continued, "_Où avez-vous été tous ma vie?_" ("Where have you been all my life?")

Arthur noticed the flirting and snapped, "HEY, FROG! STOP HARASSING THE YOUNG LADY!"

Francis barked, "I'M NOT HARASSING HER! SHE LIKES ME!" He winked at Lauren, asking, "_Oui_, isn't that right?"

Addison came racing up, pushing Lauren away from Francis as she stepped on his foot, and she said, "RUN RUN!"

Now that Lauren was away, Francis held his foot for a moment in pain, then started arguing with Arthur. They began strangling each other, and Lauren, still running around in circles with the Arkansan, asked, "Shouldn't we try to break that up?"

Addison shook her head, saying, "Nah. Alfie told me about how they fight a lot, but it's really just sexual tension."

"I got it," Lauren said nonchalantly, watching them fight. She really didn't want to be the cause of a fight, but that was certainly better than to be flirted with.


	9. Chapter 9 - Massacre

Addison chatted with Lauren a lot. Addison liked to talk, saying, "The trees are very pretty! We have a lot of trees, but we have fires nearly every summer! You know what's sad? Arkansas's grass hasn't turned green since the last couple years of droughts! The weather doesn't allow time for enough moisture to replenish the plants! In the winter time, we get dry air from that dumb jet stream, but in the summer, all moisture is sucked out! The air is wetter during the summer, sadly!"

Lauren pouted, saying, "Ah, I'm so sorry for Arkansas..."

"It's okay!" Addison said, rubbing her cracked hands. "It's dry, but I'm used to it. Hugh and I argue over who owns Texarkana, though."

"Who's Texarkana?" Lauren asked.

Smiling, Addison said, "A town situated right at the border between Arkansas and Texas! Did you know that Johnny Cash was Arkansan? Wal-Mart was first in Arkansas! The Quawpaw Indians invented popcorn, and they were Arkansan! We're renowned for courtesy in Arkansas, thanks to our Native Americans! The river people welcomed the French, Spanish, and English who all came up the river to explore! We fed them, clothed them, and all that stuff!"

Lauren was greatly brightened up by Addison. She would love to have Addison as a friend. She said, "That's great!"

"Yeah!" Addison said, "I'm really proud of my history! My most proud moment has to have been the Little Rock Nine!"

That confused Lauren. What was a Little Rock Nine? She asked for clarification, and Addison said, "Integration! Nine brave African-Americans in Little Rock, my capitol, went to an all-white school, and the military and everything had to go to the school the first day! I am ashamed of how everyone acted, but I am so proud of my darling Nine who took that first step! I'm so dark skinned from the mix of African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans in my state!"

Lauren smiled and said, "That's great!"

Hugh and Lillian came skipping up, grabbing Addison in either arm, and said in unison with two different accents, "YO, TAKE US TO AIL-DOE-RAY-DOE!" (El Dorado)

They began to drag Addison away, kicking and thrashing, who barked, "ELL-DOOR-AWD-OE DOESN'T HAVE GOLD THERE SHUT UP YOU" her screaming faded away into the crowd as nations mingled and chattered. A young man with a tan coat over his shoulders approached Lauren, unique, curly dark brown hair falling in waves, and he asked in a hushed voice, "Hello, who are you?"

"I'm Lauren," Lauren said. "I'm Quebec. Who are you?"

He held out his hand, and she shook it as he said, "Heracles; Greece."

"Greece?" Lauren gasped, "Like, Sparta, Athens, home-of-democracy? I love democracy!"

Nodding, Heracles said in the same hushed, sleepy tone, "Yes, I do too. And I like to sleep."

Lauren's eyes widened, "Sleep? I love sleeping! I think that sleeping in the winter is the best, because it's so snug to curl up under a blanket and sleep the months away!"

Heracles smiled and said softly, "I like sleeping, too. Want to sleep with me?"

As Lauren was about to point out how awkward that sounded, a slightly older male with tan skin, stubble, a white mask, and a green hoodie appeared, saying, "Haha, Heracles, don't you know how perverted that sounds?"

Heracles looked embarassed and angry, spinning around to spit some harsh words at Sadik, who was Turkey. Lauren instantly sensed this and began to run away, and Sadik said, "OH, LOOK, YOU MADE HER RUN AWAY! WAIT, YOUNG LADY, WHAT'S YOUR NAME?"

Sadik walked around Heracles, about to follow Lauren, when he saw who she was running to, so he cringed and turned around on his heels, beginning to march away, and said, "Well, not going there. GUPTA, YO, GUPTA!"

"Huh?" Heracles asked, then looked over his shoulder. He saw what Sadik meant and said, "Oh."

Lauren saw three young men cringing, backs against a wall, path blocked by a tall man wearing a long beige coat and a long scarf. The man held a pipe, and he was smiling at the three scared nations. Lauren slowly came to a walking approach, trying to assess the situation. _The three little guys are being bullied_, Lauren thought. And what do you do when you see someone being bullied? You'll be a bully if you just watch, and Lauren wasn't in a mood to tell one of those other nations about it, as in to call an adult for help if you see a bully, because she would likely get into another crazy situation and the three countries would stay victims.

She got even closer to the four men, hearing the tall one say in a kind, Russian-accented voice, "You are happy to be seeing me again, _da_?"

One of the three guys had chin-length brown hair, green eyes, and looked kind of cute to Lauren, but more like a dog than a boyfriend. Another one had neatly-cropped hair like Kurt's, but he looked a little dorkier, more innocent, and had glasses. The last one was adorable, like a hamster. He had curly blonde hair and purple eyes, and he looked to be about twelve years old. All three of them looked terrified, nodding in fear to answer the Russian. Actually, some start to nod, others shake their head, then they begin to do the oppposite, now all of their heads were moving in circles, frantically trying to answer.

The tall Russian man straightened up, asking, "_Nyet_?"

Quivering and shaking, the three guys started to whimper like wounded dogs. Lauren couldn't stand it, and she calmly shoved herself between the four as the Russian raised his pipe into the air. All four froze, the three no longer shaking, staring at Lauren with wide eyes of fear, confusion, and thanks, the tall Russian staring at Lauren with an odd look of pleasure and confusion.

Lauren had her back to the three shaking young men, looking up to the tall Russian calmly, feeling fear snack upon the back of her brain. She said as calmly and clearly as she could muster, "I'm new here. I would like to be introduced to everybody before the meeting starts."

She held out her right hand to the Russian, who was Ivan if she remembered correctly, and said, "I'm Lauren. I stand for Quebec."

The Russian took her hand in his. He had a large, strong, firmly-gripping hand with a black glove on it. He didn't shake her hand; he just held it firmly, as if not planning to let it go. Ivan smiled at Lauren and said, "I am Ivan Braginski. I am being Russia. You become one, _da_?"

As calmly as Lauren could manage, she said, "Perhaps, after I get introduced to everyone. Nice to meet you, Mister Braginki."

Lauren slipped her hand out of his, feeling her fingers be cold from momentary lack of blood, and sheturned to the three countries, holding out her arms as if to hug them, and said, "I'm Lauren."

Gulping, they all looked at each other. The brown-haired one straightened up to be Lauren's height and stature. He couldn't help but think of how cute this _Lauren_ was. Sure, she had good..._land_, but she was just cute. The way that she dressed was pleasant, cool, yet colorful, and her hair was like his, besides the braids. He shook her hand and said, "I'm-I'm T-Toris Laurinaitis. I'm Lithuania."

Toris felt Ivan's presence heavily, and he strained to ignore him to greet the girl. She would probably leave quickly after being introduced, leaving them at the mercy of the Russian, whose cruelty would be building by the second.

The girl beamed at him cheerily, making Toris feel more relaxed, smiling at her. She shook the Estonian's hand next, who introduced himself as, "Ed-Eduard v-von B-Bock...E-E-Estonia."

Lauren smiled at him equally warmly, maybe even more so, as if to make him smile like he ended up doing. She then bent her legs a little to look the Latvian in the eyes, and she said pleasantly, "I'm Lauren. Who might you be?"

With a gulp, the boy stammered, "Raivis Galante...I-I'm L-L-Latvia..."

_Baltics..._ Lauren thought, pondering why Russia would be interested in those three countries, other than the fact that they used to be in the Soviet Union.

She planned to save them from Ivan. She straightened up, saying cheerily, "You guys know the other countries well, yes?"

Gulping, they all nodded.

"Would you mind showing them to me?" she asked, "I lost my family, and I don't want to go meeting other nations alone."

Toris sensed her cunning and nodded, saying, "Yes, w-we will. Come on, g-guys."

Lauren held Raivis's hand, and the little boy's face turned warm at the feeling of her soft hand in his. Her hand was about the size of his hand, only he had longer, thinner fingers. Lauren gently took hold of Eduard's hand in her right hand and began to lead them away, Toris in front of her. Ivan watched them go, smiling innocently. _Lauren...she looks like Toris, but with Yekaterina's land..._ His facial expression changed a bit, and he thought, _Quebec...she isn't really related to Francis, is she? She is too brave..._

Ivan felt a familiar presence behind him, and he heard an evil voice, "_Big Brother...marry me_..."

Now instantly filled with fear, Ivan cried, "_NYET_!" He wished that Lauren would come save _him_! He preceded to run away into the crowd of nations.

Raivis squeezed onto Lauren's hand, as did Eduard, and Toris asked Lauren, "W-Why did you s-save us?"

Smiling at the nation, Lauren said, "Why would I not? That would be cruel."

Eduard asked, "B-But why cross I-Ivan? D-Don't you k-know it's d-dangerous?"

Lauren understood their fear, but she quoted her thoughts, "I refuse to be afraid of the dangerous, because if you face your fear with a straight face and the nerves to ignore the fact that it can hurt you, then it won't hurt you. Say if I were to walk up to a grizzly bear in the woods and stare it down. Do you know what happens when you stand your ground against a bear?"

Raivis answered softly, "You get eaten?"

"No," Lauren said with a giggle, gently brushing the top of his head. He cringed a little, flashing back to Ivan pressing on his head, but when he felt her warm hand on his head, he wasn't afraid of being crushed. She then slippered her right hand back into Eduard's hand and continued, "The bear will leave, because you will have the aura of strength and power, even if you are smaller than it. Show the bear that you are better than it. Straighten you back, puff out your chest, but do not look a bear in the eyes. That is a sign of aggression."

Toris asked, "T-Then w-what's standing up s-straight, if n-not aggression?"

With a smile, Lauren felt glad to say, "Showing equality. Every heard of 'pick on someone your own size'? If you are smaller than the bully, then the bully will be obliged to pick on you. But if you are his size, he won't want to mess with you, for chance of being beaten at his own game. But don'tlook like you're too big, or else you'll appear to be challenging his ranking as dominant. If you look like you're challenging his position as meanest or toughest, then he'll fight you."

The three Baltics were glad for the information, yet wondered if they would stand up to the bear of the opportunity presented itself. Lauren continued, saying, "Now, don't go seeking the bear, or else that's a challenge. Just wait for the bear to come to you, and be prepared, yet don't plan for it. Then you'll fail if you plan. Murphy's Law; anything that can go wrong, _will_ go wrong, if you plan for it."

Somewhat, the countries understood. They all nodded, and Lauren said cheerily, "Isn't this nice? I made some new friends, right?" She looked at all three of them, a calm look in her eyes. She hoped that they would be her friends. The more friends that she had, the less alone she was in the world.

Jennifer came walking up, playing with the neck on her sweater, and she told Lauren, "Matthew's looking for you." She saw the three Baltics and asked, "Who are you friends?"

Lauren introduced them, Raivis not letting go of her hand yet, and she said, "These are the Baltics. They're going to introduce me to the other countries."

Nodding, the Mainiac shrugged, saying, "Cool, but Matthew is really worried."

Matthew! Lauren couldn't believe how hateful she had been to Matthew! She didn't want him to be upset! She told the Baltics, "I have to find my brother. Do you want to come with me?"

The three all said very quickly, "_Yes_" in unison. Lauren smiled and laughed, glad that they wanted her company. Jennifer left to go do something-probably to find the other States-when Lauren heard an American-accented voice behind her, saying, "Hello, who are you?"

Lauren turned around to see a teenage girl, about sixteen, standing there. She smiled at Lauren in a welcoming way, saying, "I'm Indie Carter. I work here, sort of as a maid, I guess. Who are you?"

"I'm Lauren," Lauren said, holding out her hand to shake Indie's. Indie shook her hand as Lauren said, "I'm Quebec. So, how long have you been working here?"

"A couple months," Indie said. Indie had dark brown, almost black, hair that went down right past her shoulder blades. Her eyes were very pretty hazel-like color, seeing as they were dark brown with a hint of dark green. Lauren tried not to stare because she thought that she wa spretty. Indie's eyes had a light fold over the corners, and she was about 5'5, taller than Lauren by half an inch. She also had large breasts like Lauren (Lauren thought,_ Thankies, I'm not alone in the world!_) and an athletic build, similar to Lauren's, but Lauren was a little thinner with thicker yet shorter legs. Indie wore a black denim jacket over a pink shirt advertising some anime, and she wore stylish boots-though not really equipped for snow-that had fuzzy little balls hanging off of them. Lauren's attention dropped to those boots, and she purred, "OH~~ LOOK, YOUR BOOTS ARE ADORABLE!"

Lauren dropped to her knees and pawed at the fuzzy little balls that hung by threads. Indie laughed awkwardly, yet was happy that someone had shown interest in the boots that cost her a lot of her hard earned money!

Realizing that she looked stupid, Lauren stood up and said, "I'm glad to meet you! I love your outfit!"

"Thank you!" Indie said, glancing down at her otaku get-up. She had run out of formal clothes due to her sister being a doofus while doing the laundry two days ago, so she had to wear her punk otaku outfit that suited her personality.

Indie asked Lauren, "Is there anything that I can get you?"

An obnoxious laugh came from behind them, and Lauren turned around to see Gilbert, Francis, and Antonio come strolling up, Gilbert saying, "_JA, SCHATZ_! I vant some awesome German coffee!"

Wanting to take the strain off of Indie, Lauren said, "I'll get it for you."

"Thanks," Indie said, steam visible coming off of her head, "but no thanks, if I'm being paid for this, I'm doin' it."

Lauren smiled, liking Indie even more. Someone with that mindset would go far in life, get good jobs, get good grades in school, all of that.

Indie began to walk away, but Lauren offered again, "I'll go help you, though."

Looking over her shoulder, the American stared at the Canadian for a moment. Finally, a personification that wasn't annoying as heck! She nodded and said, "Totally; thanks!"

Lauren began to follow, when the three Baltics began to shiver, asking, "What if M-Mister Ivan comes back?"

Oh, shoot. Lauren hadn't thought of that. She scanned the crowd for a certain face, and she finally saw Addison. The state known for helping people! She told Indie, "Wait, please" and gestured for the Baltics to follow. She called to Addison, who came over. She gestured to the three and told Addison, "Addy, take care of them while I'm gone? Don't let Ivan Braginski get them, please?"

Saluting, Addison said, "Of course not! I'm the KING of helping people!"

"Aren't you a girl?" Hugh asked, popping up. Kurtis slapped him upside the head, and Addison said, "Queens don't do anything but live for ninety years! KINGS MAKE DECISIONS!" She threw her arms around the Baltics and said, "I can tell you about anything! Or you can tell me about anything! I'm totally not picky!"

Toris couldn't help but be a little reminded of Feliks, and Lauren left with Indie.

They went down to the nearest coffee shop, and Indie turned to Lauren, saying, "Oh shoot. I forgot to ask Gilbert what he wanted."

"He probably wants black coffee," Lauren said, trying to remember what Gilbert had drank while they shared a home. "So lets put some creamer in there, then. He also probably wants some whipped cream or something, so let's put in more creamer, and he probably wants chocolate sprinkles, so let's give him some ice cubes. Who doesn't like iced latte?"

Indie smiled at Lauren. Lauren was going to be pretty awesome to have around. They ordered the anti-Gilbert drink, applied their own ice cubes and creamer, then left. They laughed on the way, Indie saying, "You're freaking brilliant! How will he react, though?"

"Angry," Lauren said. "But did you notice the red bump next to his eye?"

"Yeah?" Indie asked. She _had_ noticed, and had made it a point to ask what caused it, but hadn't had the time.

"I caused it," Lauren said. "He scared me, and I started swinging a broom, and I hit him on accident."

Laughing, Indie said, "You're a riot! Dude, I need to hang around you more!" Lauren smiled and said, "I didn't mean to hit him, and I still feel kinda bad about it, but it _was_ funny."

Slapping Lauren's back, Indie said, "Don't worry, if you meant to and got a bunch of pleasure from it, you'd be a sadist like Ivan and his sister, Nataliya!"

Speaking of the devil, when they entered the building again, Indie and Lauren saw Ivan cringing behind the Baltics, who were cringing behind Addison, who had her knees locked and eyes clenched shut, shaking, and she said hurriedly in the fastest chipmunk voice ever, "IcanonlybesohelpfulImeanI'mArkansasbutevenwehaveourlim itsImeanholycrapwewereneveru nderattackunlessyoucountthec ivilwarandeventhennotalothap penedImeanIcan't handlethishelpfulnesscanonly gosolongpleasejusttakesomepo pcornandgo..."

(**I can only be so helpful; I mean, I'm Arkansas, but even we have our limits; I mean holy crap we were never under attack unless you count the civil war and even then not a lot happened; I mean I can't handle this; helpfulness can only last so long; please just take some popcorn and go**)

They were all cringing way from some pale-haired woman with a knife, dressed similarly to Lauren. Indie resisted gritting her teeth, hating seeing Nataliya preying on Ivan again, because that meant that more nations would be dragged into the mess.

Lauren saw Addison and the Baltics in trouble, instantly feeling like a protective mama bear, then saw Ivan Braginski, terrified and shivering as well, and for some reason felt even more protective. Ivan might be a bully, but he was a fellow nation! She forced the calmness she had while protecting the Baltics from Ivan and began to walk toward the group, until Indie said sharply, "Hold on, what're you _doing_?"

"Hold on a sec, American," Lauren said. "I gotta protect them, even Ivan, because no one has the right to be tormented."

The Canadian began to walk toward them, and Indie hissed, trying to figure out if she should try to help or not. She decided to stay and watch, to run for assistance if anything bad broke out; she would help, herself, but it would be wiser to pull in other nations to help.

Lauren walked between Nataliya and the shivering group. She heard all five breathe out soft sighs of relief behind her, and she faced Nataliya. She stared the woman in the ice blue eyes. Geez, she was horrified of this chick. She was freaky, and she looked like some evil version of Lauren.

By this point in time, Heracles had noticed, and remembering how Lauren had succeeded in saving the Baltics earlier, wondered if she could defend herself against the sum of all evil. He found Sadik, who was hanging around with Yekaterina Braginskaya, and he told them in a stangely urgent voice, "Guys, Nataliya is-"

"Nataliya?" Yekaterina gasped, making her breasts bounce. Hearing the name, many countries stopped their arguments and discussions to look at Heracles. He pointed over his shoulder and said, "Lauren-"

"LAUREN?!" Lillian, Ludwig, Arthur, Matthew, Gilbert, Alfred, Kurtis, Hugh, Elizabeta, and Roderick all gasped in different tones, pitches, accents, and emotions.

"Lauren is protecting the Baltics, Ivan, and Addison-"

"ADDISON?!" The Yankees gasped.

Half of the world followed Heracles to where the stand off was. Nataliya was hissing at Lauren, sounding like a demon as she said, "Move out of the way or I will kill you."

Lauren stayed calm, fear only barely noticed as she said in her light tone of voice, "Ivan can become one with you, but you shouldn't scare him like this, or else he'll never want to be one."

"YOU WILL NEVER SEPERATE ME AND BIG BROTHER!" Nataliya hissed, throwing herself and her knife at Lauren. Many countries and states gasped, about to try and stop. Lauren ducked a little, throwing herself at the floor, and grabbed onto Nataliya's legs as she did so. They slid for a few feet, Nataliya hissing while Lauren spat out commands to stop.

Ludwig threw himself at the two, barking, "STOP ZIS, NOW!"

Lauren threw Nataliya off of herself, then jumped on top of the Belarusian instantly. Lauren held onto Nataliya's wrists, curling her fingers around the wrists as tightly as she could, yet not wanting to hurt Nataliya.

Nataliya stared up at Lauren with a look of pure hatred, trying to pull her hands free and slash at Lauren. Lauren stared Nataliya in the eyes, saying, "I'M NOT TRYING TO SEPERARE YOU TWO!"

Ivan cried, tears streaming fro his face as he shouted, "Nataliya, stop this!"

Ludwig tried to grab onto Lauren's back and pull her off, but she held so tightly onto Nataliya that Nataliya's back started to lift off of the ground. Indie threw the coffee at Gilbert, splattering it over his face-which basically pushed the magic button on his face that replays all the German cuss words that he knew-and she threw herself at the fight, shouting, "STOP IT!"

She swung a kick at Nataliya's right hand, which held the knife. She kicked the knife out of the fascist country's grasp, sending the knife flying through the air, yet in doing so, she kicked Lauren's hand. Lauren screeched, yanking her left arm away. In doing so, Nataliya threw a punch, making Lauren's head snap back, blood streaming down from her nose and down her lips.

Lauren was enraged. She didn't know what happened next, but within the next moment that she could register actual things going on around her, she had her right arm out in a punching motion, Ludwig falling back onto the floor. She saw a blue blur to her right, streaking for the knife, but everything went black again. She was now curling her fingers around Nataliya's neck, pressing her head against the wall. Out of the corner of her eye, Lauren could see Addison laying on the floor, unmoving, the knife a few inches away from her head.

Screaming at the top of her lungs, yet not understanding why she was saying this, Lauren cried, "DO NOT TOUCH THEM! IF YOU TOUCH THEM, I WILL KILL YOU! YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF FASCIST CRAP!"

Hugh's arms wrapped around her back, but Lauren didn't budge. She banged Nataliya's head against the wall, away from the wall, back at the wall, back, against the wall. She was making a dent in the wall, yet no blood was spilling! Lauren screamed something inaudible, for some reason, wanting blood to spill. What was this monster? Kurtis came up from behind Hugh, afraid of what Lauren was becoming, and he threw his arms around the two, prying Lauren away from Nataliya. Nataliya fell unconscious on the floor while Kurtis and Hugh struggled to throw Lauren to the side.

The Canadian smacked the floor with a thunk, feeling her bones jar. Her braids had come undone, her hair crazy, uneven, and frayed. She lay on her hands and knees, panting like a wild animal, not seeing anything.

Indie came up from behind Lauren, holding her in case she started to rampage again, while Ivan and Yekaterina dropped to Nataliya's side, crying and begging for her to open her eyes.

Lauren opened her eyes for one last time, not understanding what was going on, not remembering anything that happened, yet knowing that she prayed desperately to never black out again.

Gilbert wrote in his diary, saying, _What happened was this; cold coffee that tasted unawesome hit me in the face, and when I could see again, Lauren had been punched. She was something else completely! She threw Ludtz off of her back and kicked Nataliya in the face. Ludwig tried to stop her, but Lauren turned around and punched him, knocking him out!_

_Nataliya then dove for her knife, and Addison screamed, "HELPFULNESS!" and jumped onto Nataliya just as she reached the knife. Nataliya grabbed the knife and tried to stab Addison, and Lauren saw this and became hysteric! The awesome me could do nothing; that was how crazy it was!_

_As Lauren ran for Nataliya and Addison, Nataliya jumped onto her back, crushing Addison underneath her, just as Lauren reached her. Lauren kicked Nataliya in the ribs, making her fall off of Addison and drop the knife. Ivan and Yekaterina were screaming, begging for the two to stop it. Lauren checked on Addison for a moment, but she wasn't Lauren; she was like some monster, and she only slapped Addison for a reply. When she didn't get it, she howled like some wild beast and grabbed Nataliya by the ankles, dragging her along the ground on her stomach, screaming things like, "YOU DARE HURT MY FAMILY AND I WILL KILL YOU! YOU WITCH, I WILL SLAUGHTER YOU!" I can't remember; even the awesome me can't remember, because it was too fast._

_Even Elizabeta-big bad and tough!-merely grabbed onto Roderick, crying into his chest! Like, so unawesome! Then I can't remember how it got here, cuz I was looking at the two losers, but Nataliya was against the wall, Lauren sitting on her, strangling her, pounding her head against the wall!_

_Geez, she's freaky. One punch, and she turned into the Hulk or something! Oh, wait, someone's knocking on the door...I gotta go. See ya later, from the Awesome Me!_ Gilbert placed the book mark in his diary, closed the diary, hid it in his desk, and got up to answer the door.


	10. Chapter 10 - Aftermath

***I FORGOT TO CREDIT TheAmericanNinja FOR HER BEAUTIFUL OTAKU CHARACTER, INDIE! WELL, INDIE CARTER BELONGS TO **_THE NINJA_**! THANKIES, TheAmericanNinja FOR LETTING ME USE HER!***

Gilbert opened his bedroom door to find Matthew standing there. The Canadian looked different, head hung, red around his eyes, a tired, emotionless look in his eyes. Gilbert asked softly, "How ist Lowren doing?"

Matthew slowly shook his head, saying, "Hasn't s-stopped crying. Well, sh-she ran out of t-tears, but she's s-still crying all the s-same."

Sighing, Gilbert slowly nodded. It was only a few minutes ago that he had stopped hearing the sobs through the floor and walls. He asked Matthew, "Vhy ist she ze vun crying if she vas the attacker? I vould be expecting Nataliya und ze Russians to be crying..."

"They probably are," Matthew said, leaning to his left against the doorway. He was exhausted. It was almost morning; he had taken Lauren, Gilbert, and the Germanics and just left the meeting right after that happened. Matthew assumed that Ivan took his sisters home as well, and that Alfred took his states home, and with a large lack of nations, the rest of the nations would've headed home as well. "But Lauren is guilty. She keeps saying that she doesn't want to be a monster or to hurt people and things..."

Gilbert caught Matthew from falling, holding the normally soft-spoken man by the shoulders. Matthew lifted his head up to look Gilbert in the eyes. Matthew said softly, "I'm afraid of leaving Lauren, to sleep...but Elizabeta has kept a w-watch over her...will you also?"

Red eyes widening, Gilbert wasn't sure if he would be able to handle such a task. Sure, he was awesome, but...he never really handled with such a thing. Matthew asked, "Can you take this on?"

With a gulp, Gilbert said, "I do not know. I never dealed vith zis-not vith young Vest, or vith Elizabeta vhen ve vere younger...I just didn't deal vith anything remotely like zis, except for in Ivan's house."

Dry, reddened eyes stared into casually red eyes. Matthew asked Gilbert, "What...what did you d...deal with?"

Feeling the walls closing in, Gilbert said, "Vell...I dealt vith Ivan going into rages out of ze blue, hurting Raivis, Toris, Eduard, or me...he didn't usually fight vith Nataliya or Yekaterina."

Matthew sighed and began to slump away, down the stairs, saying, "I've g...got to sleep...your s...shift..."

Gilbert curtly nodded, even though no one was looking. He headed into his room, hid his diary in the proper place, then left the room, closing the door behind himself. He walked down the stairs as quietly as he could, yet the stairs were noisier than ever right when stealth was needed. Gilbert got to the floor where Lauren and Elizabeta were.

Approaching the door, Gilbert heard only silence. He softly knocked on the door, and Elizabeta called softly, "Come in."

Preparing for the worst, Gilbert opened the door. Inside, Elizabeta and Lauren were curled up under Lauren's blanket, Lauren's head resting under Elizabeta's chin. Elizabeta glanced at Gilbert and said softly, "She cried so hard and for so long that she got sick, then she got so sick that she fell asleep."

Gilbert hung his head, gulping. He scratched the top of his head, which was still sticky from where he missed cleaning the coffee out of his hair. He told Elizabeta, "I'm...sorry."

"Why?" she asked. They were both speaking in hushed tones.

To be honest, Gilbert didn't know why. He shrugged and said, "I do not know. I'm just sorry, zat's all..."

Elizabeta sighed and closed her eyes. She told Gilbert, "Poor dear...all she vorries about is vhat condition Nataliya is in and vhat ze other countries zink about her."

Slowly walking into the room, Gilbert closed the door behind himself and walked over to Elizabeta's side of the bed. He asked her softly, "Do ve know vhat exactly caused ze rampage?"

With a shake of her head, Elizabeta said, "No real clue, othzer zan ze fact zat someone she cared for was in danger."

"How could she hold such a fury?" Gilbert asked. "I mean, it's like she became like Ivan or somezing for a moment...she vasn't even like him; she vas somezing else..."

Taking a deep breath, Elizabeta said, "I don't know, but let's not vorry about it over Lauren as she sleeps."

Silence enveloped them for a moment, then Gilbert whispered, "I hope zat her dreams aren't zat bad..."

_Lauren crept around in the snow, wearing thick furs for clothing, boots, gloves, and a hood. Snow flaked and froze on her eyebrows, eyelashes, nose, lips, and her whole face. She blinked the snowflakes away, holding a large spear crafted from a humpback whale's rib bone. She looked around from side to side, controlling her breathing to be steadily, although fear nibbled at the back of her mind._

_A loud roar ripped out from the trees behind Lauren, and she wheeled around in the knee-deep snow. A huge, flat-faced bear loomed in the trees, shoulders much higher than Lauren was tall. The bear roared again, looming up on its back legs, and now it was three times larger than Lauren, its hind legs taller than her._

_Eyes widening, Lauren braced herself, holding the spear tightly in both hands. The large bear dropped onto its paws again, shaking its shaggy-furred head. It had deep black eyes, like pits of darkness, and a large nose that moved lively as it sniffed the frosty air. Lauren braced herself for the bear to charge, not knowing if she could survive, yet knew that she would not back down. Die fighting, because living after running away is cowardly, and you will have no life after such a retreat._

_The bear began to charge, and Lauren realized instantly that it wasn't charging for her. She ducked low and rolled, disappearing in the snow, and the bear leaped over her, its paws, larger than her head, barely missing her body by mere inches._

_Roaring filled the air, and the brown ten-foot-tall bear charged on a white twelve-foot-tall bear. Lauren jumped back to her feet and wheeled around to face the fight. The large brown bear lunged for the large white bear's throat. They deflected each other's blows, falling to their sides in the snow. Lauren could not see what they were fighting over, yet by the strong stench of fear in the air, she knew that it must be a cub-whether from the brown one or the white one, it was unknown._

_The bears clawed, tangled, and snapped at each other. Blood scored their flanks, muzzles, and shoulders. Lauren heard a cub's howling of fear, and she saw the cub, large yet young, pressing itself against a tree. It was brown and flat-faced like the ten-foot-tall bear._

_Lunging for the cub, the white bear got off of the brown bear. Lauren saw the attack and jumped up, smacking the large bear with her spear. The spear snapped in half, and the white bear roared, lunging for Lauren's throat. The brown bear rammed into the white bear, throwing it off of its feet and into the snow. Lauren looked at the young cub with a medical eye. It had a broken left front leg, but other than that, it was okay, only a look of fear in its face._

_In fear, the brown bear howled, pinned underneath the white bear. The white bear raised its head up, about to plungs its jaws into the brown bear's throat, when Lauren leaped into the air like some predatory bird, ramming the broken end of the spear into the white bear's neck. The spear broke through the fur, fat, and muscles in the neck, and blood squirted out of the wound, staining Lauren and the clear white snow. _

_Finishing the white bear off with a harsh twist of her spear, Lauren ripped the rib bone out of the bear's neck and backed up slowly, panting, the hot blood burning on her face, melting some frost that had been on her face. The brown bear got out from under the white bear and tended to her cub. Lauren sighed, backing up slowly as the brown bear dragged the white bear's body to the cub. Lauren would rather give up her meal to a mother protecting her cub, thus continuing a great part of the food chain, than give up the cub and the mamma bear to the white bear, which would prevent more lives from being created._

_Lauren backed up away from the mother and her cub until out of sight, then turned and ran into the tundra without a trace._

When Lauren woke up, her arms were wrapped around Elizabeta, Lauren's head down by the Hungarian's stomach. Lauren felt dizzy, lightheaded, and sick when she opened her eyes, head spinning and burning. Gilbert was asleep on the floor at Elizabeta's side of the bed, so Lauren couldn't see him. Lauren weakly whimpered and closed her eyes, trying to will the pain away, and fell back asleep before the guilt could grasp her again.

Ivan Braginski sat on one side of Nataliya's bed, holding her hand as she slept. Nataliya's face was peaceful, more warm than Ivan had seen in years. Then again, he hadn't been brave enough to allow Nataliya to fall asleep next to him, so he couldn't have seen if she looked peaceful lately when she slept.

Yekaterina was holding Nataliya's hand on the other side, leaning on the bed, her head rested next to Nataliya's, also asleep. Ivan had bags under his eyes, which were dry and red, from staying up all night. He would have to take revenge on that Lauren. She hurt Nataliya.

**Meanwhile, in Belarus, the government, which had been fascist only days ago, was crumbling. It was a good kind of crumble, though. The people's voice finally got through, and they cried for a new leader. They overthrew the government, and high-standing rebels were now giving the option of creating a new government, choosing their own leaders that they could trust, and maybe even have their economy heal.**

Lauren woke up again, Elizabeta awake as well. Lauren moaned, feeling even worse than before, and she asked Elizabeta in a raspy voice, "Can I have some water...?"

"Sure, baby," Elizabeta said, petting the top of Lauren's head. She got out of bed and hurried away to quickly get some water from the kitchen. Lauren had almost fallen back asleep by the time that Elizabeta got back, and she handed her the cup of water, helping her to sit up. Lauren gulped down the water and felt even thirstier after finishing it. Elizabeta smiled in a bit of a grimace, glad that Lauren was drinking water. She got more water and gave it to Lauren. Gilbert had begun to get to his feet from where he had been on the floor just minutes ago. He realized that he was thirsty, too, and was about to leave for his own cup of water before Lauren stopped him, asking softly, "Herr Gilbert?"

Turning around, Gilbert asked groggily, "_Ja_?"

Lauren averted her eyes, feeling them grow wet with tears, staring at her hands. She asked in an even softer voice, "I'm not..._bad_, am I?"

Gilbert shook his head, sitting at the foot of the bed. He told her awkwardly, "_Nein_...I really don't know how you could zink of yourself as bad...you sure handled the situation better zan any of us have..."

Still not looking up, Lauren whimpered, "Really?"

How cold Gilbert comfort a young girl? To be honest, Gilbert didn't really think that she was that young. She had to be late teens, he believed, but she had the heart of an innocent child. How could he deal with comforting her? He tentatively lifted up his pale hand, gently running his hand over her head, and he said, "_Ja_...you showed Nataliya zat she can't push othzers around, und stuff...heck, maybe she'll even zink of you as a friend..."

Utter surprise make Lauren jerk her head up. She stared Gilbert in the eyes for a moment, not able to say anything, until she found the strength to ask, "_Friend_?"

Nodding, Gilbert said, "_Ja_...I sort of knew her, not too long ago, vhen she vas part of the Soviet Union...she vill probably zink of you as an equal..."

Gulping with her dry throat, Lauren found a weak smile. Gilbert was relieved to see that smile-he was starting to feel unawesomely awkward without Lauren smiling. Elizabeta came back with a plate of cheese cubes and a bottle of cold spring water. She sat down on the side of the bed, telling Lauren, "Here are some cheese cubes zat you might like...zese are Sviss, zese are chedder, zese are colby-jack, or vhatever zey're called..."

Excusing himself, Gilbert got up and left.

Alfred F. Jones was placing his right hand on the back of his head, feeling the crusty scab under his hair. During Lauren's and Nataliya's fight, Alfred realized that something hot and sticky running down his head, and he felt for it. Blood was running down his head, and he figured that it related to Addison, whose head was thunked painfully against the floor when Nataliya flipped over.

The American was trying to find out what that jerk had caused to happen in Arkansas, though, that could cause him to bleed. Alfred was in the middle of Googling it, typing with his left hand. Arkansas had earthquakes now and then, and there was a nuclear waste there with risk of collapsing from too sharp of an earthquake, but...the earthquake that happened in north-east Arkansas at that time was only a 1.5...it was likely caused by the head bump, but it wasn't enough to cause Alfred to bleed, right?

Deciding to Google "DISASTERS IN THE USA ON" insert date (he actually typed in a wrong date, accidentally typing 2008 instead of 2018) and spent many minutes trying to find a site that answered his question.

Saddest news; a school bus was hijacked in Michigan, but nobody died and nobody was hurt, so that couldn't cause it. In California, there was another earthquake, but California, on Alfred's body, was his left thigh, and if it had been California, then Angelica would've reacted as well...

A "Related Page" dealed with a volcano exploding in Alaska. That made sense...Alfred guessed. Alaska was still a state, even if it was far away, so he would react to the pain all the same.

Now solving the mystery, Alfred got up and headed into Addison's room. She opened her eyes at him from where she lay on her bed, on her right side. She lifted her head up and murmured, "Hey, Alfred..."

"Hey," Alfred said, waving his right hand. He sat down at the foot of her bed and asked, "Feeling better, dude?"

She nodded, closing her eyes, and said, "Yeah, everything feels kinda static-y, still, but I'm cool, bro."

"Cool," Alfred said, getting to his feet. Kurtis came walking into the room, holding a platter with a bowl of cereal and a glass of milk on it. He set it down next to Addison, who thanked him. Kurtis turned to Alfred, looking at him with a gaze that Alfred often got from Ludwig, and said, "Thank you for starting to be a little serious about our health."

Alfred curtly nodded, saying, "Uh, sure. Totally welcome."

Kurtis walked by Alfred, leaving. Kurtis then headed into his room, which had football posters on the walls-they mainly consisted of the Chicago Bears-and sat down at his bed, pulling his laptop out from under his pillow. He placed the compact computer onto his lap and opened it, typing in his password to see the last session that he had been at.

_Fifty States_, Kurtis thought. He scanned the states, looking at them on the map, scanning their physical features. It was by the time that he had monitored forty-eight that he realized that there were the two others. He forgot about Alaska and Hawaii.

Kurtis's brother, Alfred, had neglected to travel to those states to check for personifications because they were far away. Perhaps that held the key to Alfred's head bleeding. It could've been a volcanic eruption, but seeing as Hawaii has volcanos spilling over daily, and they don't explode like a burp. It had to have been in Alaska. Now that Kurtis figured that out, he prepared to turn off his computer. He then saw suggested sites, saying, "ALASKA HAS MAJORITY VOTE TO SECEDE". Now Alaska had 90% vote to leave.

Wow. Kurtis knew that the other states were high, but Alaska was dangerously high! It was even more dangerous because about a hundred people lived in Alaska, so that counted for more population of Alaska rather than if there were millions of people there.

Okay, maybe there were more than a hundred, but that wasn't a bad estimate.

There was a knock on his door, and Kurtis slammed his laptop shut, hid it under his pillow, and called calmly, "Come in."

Alfred entered, saying, "Kurt, bro, I got someone for you!"

"Who?" Kurtis asked.

"Well, it's actually two people! Girls!"

Raising an eyebrow, Kurtis asked, "Can you just tell me who it is?"

"MINNESOTA AND UTAH!" Alfred said in his "hero" voice, throwing his arms into the air. Two girls crept into Kurt's room.

One of the girls (a slightly slimmer one with shoulder-length, straight, light blonde hair, calm sky-blue eyes, and light skin) smiled. "Hello, my name is Utah; Isabel Ute Smithsen Young." Isabel was dressed in a black-and-white checker skirt that went to her knees, black pantyhose, black dress shoes, and a black vest over a white button-up-shirt with poofy shoulders, like Lauren's, although her sleeves only went to her elbows. She held a leather case in her right hand, and she continued, "It is a pleasure to meet you. Would you like to take a moment to talk about our Savior, Jesus Christ?"

Minnesota stepped up, a thicker build, red eyes, and brown-blonde, straight, short boyish hair. She wore a bomber jacket similar to Alfred's, and a curvy figure. She said, "I'm Minnesota; Madeline Mansyn. Guess you're Kurt?"

"Kurtis," Kurtis replied, running his right hand through his hair, like he often did when he was stressed. More states-even _UTAH_, of all states, had enough self-independence to create their own person.

Isabel turned, prepared to leave. She could feel the tension in the air, and anyway, she had to meet the other States. Madeline grabbed onto Isabel's arm, saying, "Hold on, bro! Where might you happen to be going?"

Minnesota was a very literate state, just saying. Although Madeline was very tomboyish and Alfred-like, she hated incorrect grammar worse han Arthur Kirkland. Isabel turned to look at her, saying, "I would like to meet the other states."

Kurtis forced them out of his room as an argument started to break out between Madeline, Alfred, and Isabel. The argument turned tables to be just Madeline and Alfred arguing, so Isabel turned and left. She ran into a slightly younger girl with a Native-American look, long black hair messy but slightly wavy, as if it had been in a braid. Isabel apologized about fifty times, while the girl apologized about fifty-one times. Finally, after the sorries were over, Isabel introduced herself, holding her hand out to be shaken.

The girl took her hand and shook it, saying, "Addison Urkinsau; Arkansas. So, you're Utah, so you're...Mormon?"

Isabel smiled and said, "Yup! But it is better to call us LDS, because 'Mormon' is slang. We're Christians, and when you say 'Mormon' you think that we worship Mormon or something..."

Addison smiled and said, "Cool! I didn't know that! And your Christians? Since when?"

Of course it still bothered Addison-the Nataliya incident-but she wanted her mind to be off of it. An accident is no reason for life to not go as normal.

Startling enough, a new stranger came walking up. She had long, messy, slightly wavy white hair, pink eyes (with rimless glasses), and a thin scar on the left side of her nose-right when you looked at it. She wore a navy-blue skirt that went halfway down to her knees, she wore white socks to her knees, thick black boots, and a robe-like navy-blue-and-red jacket. She gasped, stumbling back, her pale face holding the look of surprise. She said, "Oh, more states!"

Addison nodded and said, "Yeah...who're you? I'm Arkansas, Addison. This is Utah, Isabel."

The state smiled and said, "I'm Gaile Penn; Pennsylvania. Wanna know what Wikipedia has to say about 'Pennsylvania Dutch'?" (_Her name is pronounced "Gale-uh"_)

Before they could reply, the girl recited; _**The term "Dutch," when referring to the Pennsylvania Dutch, means "German" or "Teutonic" rather than "Netherlander." Germans, in their own language, call themselves "**_**Deutsch**_**," which in English became, misleadingly, "Dutch." The Pennsylvania Dutch language is a descendant of German, in the West Central German dialect family. Although it is still spoken as a first language among some Old Order Amish and Mennonites (principally in the Lancaster County area), the language is almost extinct as an everyday language among the non-religious, though a few words have passed into English usage.**_

She smiled cheerfully, saying, "Guess what that means!"

Isabel opened her mouth to speak, when Gaile said, "I'M AWESOMELY PRUSSIAN!" She threw her hips to the side, placing her right hand on her hips, then held out her right hand in a fist. Addison fist-pumped her, while Isabel just acted confused. She asked, "Wait, you're German?"

Alfred came walking up, saying, "Gale! CHECK THIS OUT, COME ON, TOTALLY QUICK!"

The Pennsylvanian lifted her head up like an excited dog, seeing Alfred come running up. She said excitedly, "MY NAME IS PRONOUNCED GAYL-UH! WHAT?!"

The American halted in front of her, saying, "I FOUND THIS ON THIS TOTALLY _AWESOME_ BLOG SITE!"

He whipped his laptop out from behind him, showing her the screen. She got excited and said, "WHOOOOOOO!"

Isabel and Addison were laughing, both of them asking, "What's so 'wooooooo'ful?"

Gaile threw her right arm over Isabel's shoulder, saying, "WE WERE JUST TOTALLY INVITED OVER TO GILBERT'S HOUSE! WELL, IT'S TECHNICALLY MATTHEW WILLIAM'S HOUSE, BUT I DON'T CARE!"

Addison's face turned pale, blood disappearing. What? Wasn't Lauren there? How would Lauren be feeling and acting? Addison didn't want to disturb her new friend if she was feeling bad. Alfred laughed and said, "IN THREE DAYS, WE'RE TOTALLY GOING OVER BACK TO FINISH THE MEETING!"

Stammering, Addison asked, "W-Will Lauren be there?"

With a shrug, Alfred said, "I dunno, dude! Can you stop worrying about things before they happen?"

Gaile threw her left arm over Addison's shoulder, noticing both of them feeling odd, and she said fairly calmly, "Don't worry, dudes...it's okay...whatever's wrong...it's totally okay..."

Pink gaze dropping for a moment, Gaile saw the leather bag in Isabel's hand. She snatched it up quickly, saying, "WHAT'S IN HERE, A BIBLE?!"

"Wait!" Isabel gasped, afraid of the obnoxious girl tearing her Bible or Book of Mormon. With a second of seeing the Bible, Gaile dropped to a crisscrossed-leg-position on the floor, a calm aura over her, holding the Bible. She smiled with a different emotion, and she opened it, reading Isabel's notes in the margins, and she said softly, "Wow, a lot of details..."

She opened up to a random page that Isabel had scribbled "SECOND FACE SCRIPTURE" above, and she said, "I like this scripture, too..."

Alfred dragging Addison away excitedly, Isabel sat down on the floor next to Gaile, pointing out other things.

Lauren finally realized that she couldn't hold her pee any longer, so she got up. She entered the hallway and nearly ran into Ludwig, who was walking by, and she stammered, "Oh, s-sorry, sir!"

He blinked hurriedly, surprised, and said, "Oh, zat's okay. How...how are you feeling?"

Gulping, Lauren said, "Better...hey, Herr Ludwig...I'm very sorry about hitting you, and everybody else..."

Breathing in deeply, making his chest rise, Ludwig closed his eyes. Poor girl. Hopefully she could learn to control her temper. He told her, "I forgive you, as do most othzer nations. Ivan und his family might have some problems vith it, but soon, zey should continue being evil as normal."

Lauren made a dry laugh and a smile. Ludwig was relieved to see her smiling again, because she seemed more normal now. He smiled at her, which was a rarity for him to do, and he rubbed the top of her head playfully. Perhaps showing affection could help her-and really, she was deserving of it. He told her in his deep voice, "Just learn to control zat temper, _ja_?"

She placed her right hand on her forehead in a salute, saying cheerily with a smile, "Yes, sir!" She actually closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of warmth that spread through her. It was weird how many people liked to rub her head to make her feel better, but she enjoyed it as well as Ludwig's gruff comment. Ludwig began walking away, and she instantly opened her eyes and shot her left hand forward, snatching Ludwig's phone out of his back pocket without him noticing. She slipped it into her coat pocket-yes, she was wearing her coat, even when she was sleeping, because she was cold.

Going to the restroom, Lauren shut and locked the door behind her, then relieved herself. One done and finished washing her hands, she then took Ludwig's phone and pushed the button on the top that woke it up. Everything was in German, but after clicking enough buttons, she came to the contacts list.

In alphabetical order from A to Z from top to bottom, his contacts were arranged. Lauren used her right forefinger to flick the touch-screen to scroll down. She found "**INDIE CARTER (*something in German that probably meant "maid" or something*)**" Lauren clicked that button and held the phone to her ear. It buzzed on the other end for a moment until Indie picked up.

"Hello, this is Indie Carter speak-"

"INDIE!" Lauren gasped, relieved. "Indie, Indie, Indie!"

"YESYESYES?!" Indie asked on the other end, not recognizing the voice on the other end, "THIS ISN'T MISTER BEILSCHMIDT, IS IT?!"

Laughing, Lauren realized how much Indie had brightened up her day. "No, this is Lauren! I figured that Herr Ludwig vould-WOULD!-have everybody's number..."

"Lauren?" Indie gasped, instantly ignoring the pasta that she was trying to put in the oven with her sister. She left the kitchen, Sam Carter asking her why she was leaving. Indie shouted, "SOMEONE FROM WORK!" while Sam said, "OKAY DUBSTEP!"

Indie went to her room, sitting down on her bed, and asked, "How are you?"

"Good, thank you very much for asking," Lauren said. Indie sighed and murmured, "That's good...so, why did you call me?"

Being honest, Lauren said, "Well, I'm lonely, _and_ I wanted to know some things. How have the countries reacted to my...blow up?"

Sighing, Indie said, "Honestly, I don't know. I'd hitched a ride with Alfred when I came to the meeting, so I left with him, and he left right when you guys left."

Nodding slowly, Lauren said, "Okay, that's fine...thank you. Tell me...how bad was I?"

Indie knew that that wasn't a good idea. She may be an obnoxious otaku, but even otakus know what not to tell someone! About to tell Lauren that she wasn't that *coughliecough* bad, Lauren interrupted, asking, "I wasn't bad, was I? I don't want to be bad..."

Taking a breath, Indie said, "You seriously were not as bad as you could've been...imagine the nations at war...it could've been worse. Do you have anything else to talk about, like movies or something?"

"No."

"Well," Indie said, "Alfred called me and said that he got some new states. Two Germanic-like ones and whatever you might call Minnesota."

Lauren smiled and asked, "Did you know that Kurtis is Germanic? German immigrants filled Missouri, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and some other states. Isn't that cool?"

Smiling, Indie said excitedly, "Yeah, that is!"

"Utah is also the breeding ground of LDS...when their prophet, Joseph Smith, was murdured or something, all the LDS left and settled in Illinois for a while. They were told to leave after a while, and they settled in Utah."

Well, at least Lauren had her mind off of things. Lauren started spilling out her knowledge of European countries, American States, and how Kievan Rus' was founded by the Vikings, so technically, Russia is related to the Nordic countries, so Indie told her, "Ivan is then related to Berwald-Sweden, Mathis-Denmark, Emil-Iceland, Lukas-Norway, and Tino-Finland...I can kinda see the resemblence, now that I think about it..."

Lauren smiled, imagining Indie with a pondering face on the other end. Then she gasped, saying, "I've got to go! Bye!"

"Bye!" Indie said. She hung up right when she remembered that she should've told Lauren about how the meeting was going to be repeated in a couple days! POO NUGGETS!

Lauren then scrolled down and found "**IVAN BRAGINSKI (*something in German that was probably their word for "Russia"*)**". With a gulp, Lauren forced all bravery that she could muster into her hand, and she pushed the name. Instantly, all the bravery LEFT, and she felt like an empty shell, like rubber that was about to deflate and fall over, like in some episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.

A kind Russian voice picked up on the other end, saying, "_Zdravstvuj_, Ludwig! You wish to be becoming one, _da_?" (**informal "hello" and "yes"**)

Blood running cold, Lauren lost track of her tongue as she stammered without command, "_Zdravstvujtye_, Mister Braginski..." (**formal "hello"**)

Maybe the only thing that saved Lauren was the fact that her voice sounded funny through the phone. Ivan didn't recognize the voice, and he asked, "Who is this?"

Gulping, Lauren stammered, "Before you get mad, I want you to know that I am so sorry...it's me, Lauren..."

"Lauren?" Ivan asked, cutting her off before she could continue. He smiled pleasantly, saying cheerily, "You are knowing how much I anticipate day when I will be strangling you?"

Feeling her heart deflate, Lauren said, "I thought that you would say something worse..." In fact, she had. She slowly hung her head in shame. "I would gladly give my life to atone for my sins, Mister Braginski...h...how is Nataliya? P-Please say that I didn't hurt her t-t-too much..."

Ivan glanced to his right, where Nataliya was sleeping with a pleased look on her face. He told Lauren, "She has been sleeping soundly. In honesty, she is being better than before, I think."

Gasping, Lauren lifted her head up. She asked breathlessly, "Really?"

"Really," Ivan said, sounding cheery, yet not in his menacing way. "Belarus has actually broken free of fascist government. Maybe Nataliya will be being happier when she wakes up."

Feeling relief fill her body, Lauren sighed and said, "That's good...even if you guys hate me forever, if she wakes up happier than before she did when she was asleep, then I will feel complete."

Smiling, Ivan said, "That is being good. I think that Nataliya will be understanding. The re-do meeting is in three days, same place. You are being there, _da_?"

Lauren was surprised. The meeting was going to be tried again, and so soon? Well, it kinda made sense...she nodded, then realized that Ivan couldn't see her nod, so she said, "Um, yes, I think so..._da_." It felt familiar on her tongue and lips. Ivan smiled on the other end, saying cheerily, "Good! Maybe there, we can be talking about when we will be becoming one, _da_?"

The words slapping Lauren, she asked, "_Da_?" in such a way that asked, "_are you seriously saying that_?" Ivan took that as a "_da_" as "_of course we can_" and smiled even wider, saying even more cheerily, "Yay! I will be seeing you there! _Poka_!" ("**bye**")

Ivan hung up, and Lauren stared into space until her left eye twitched, and she cancelled everything on Ludwig's phone and got up to head to the door. She quickly flushed the toilet to avoid suspicion.

Gilbert, on the other side of the door, nearly gasped in surprise. He stumbled back and began to walk as quickly yet casually down the hall as possible. Lauren opened the door and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw Gilbert, his back to her. He was heading toward the stairs toward his room, so she quickly began to head to the stairs that led to the living room so she could plant the phone in Ludwig's coat. She held the phone in her right hand in such a way that from Gilbert's angle, it couldn't be seen.

He pondered for a moment if he should ask her, and finally, he said, "Lowren!"

Lauren stiffened in fear and turned around, hiding the phone from sight. Did Gilbert see the phone? He asked Lauren, "_Schatz_, vere you speaking _Russian_?" He absolutely couldn't stand Russian.

Gulping, Lauren said, "Yes...sir... I found Ludwig's phone in his coat and...and I was curious, so I called Indie and talked to her for a while. We were trying to see how much we knew from other languages, and she taught me some Russian in the meanwhile."

_Okay,_ Gilbert thought, relieved that Lauren hadn't been speaking to Ivan. He turned to face her completely, and he told her, "_Schatz_, I don't mind teaching you some awesome German if you vish."

Beaming, Lauren asked, "Really?" She really was excited; she loved languages! "That's awesome! When can we start?"

Smiling conceitedly, Gilbert said, "Veeeeell, I've got some blogs to update...I suppose zat later on today, I could teach you some."

Lauren smiled even wider. Gilbert liked her smile; it was a bit like Elizabeta's, but it had an extra touch to it. Lauren ran up to Gilbert, handing him Ludwig's phone, and she said, "Here is Herr Ludwig's phone. I was about to go put it back..."

"Zat's okay, _schatz_," Gilbert said, taking the phone from her and slipping it into his pocket. "I'll get it to him."

"_Vielen Dank_!" Lauren said, smiling even wider at Gilbert. He was surprised at what she knew, and she said, "Herr Ludwig taught me '_Guten_ _Tag_' and '_Auf_ _Wiedersehen_' and '_Danke_' and stuff!"

Gilbert smiled at her and said, "Pretty awesome of my little Vest, _ja_?"

"Heck _ja_!" Lauren said, about to spin around to skip away, when Gilbert said, "Say _Hölle ja_!"

Lauren repeated it cheerily and continued to head to the living room.

***OKAY MY AWESOME READERS, THAT LAST GERMAN PHRASE IS NOT A HUNDRED PERCENT ACURATE BECAUSE GERMAN GRAMMAR IS SOMETIMES VERY DIFFERENT FROM ENGLISH, AND I AM ONLY LEARNING, BUT I KNOW THAT "_Hölle" _MEANS "H****" AND "ja" MEANS "yes" SO IT SHOULD WORK! ALSO I STILL USED INDIE AND SAM CARTER, WHO ARE **_TheAmericanNinja_**'S AWESOME CHARRIES! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ***


	11. Chapter 11 - The Next Try at a Meeting

***OKAY, SORRY, MY MISTAKE; "Toris" IS OFTEN USED FOR LITHUANIA, BUT IN FACT, "Tolys" IS LITHUANIAN, SO I WILL START CALLING HIM THAT! ALSO, THIS IS ANOTHER WEIRD ONE-SETTING CHAPTER WITH FOCUS AROUND A SINGLE STUPID SOLITARY CHARACTER, I'M SORRY, OKAY, I CAN'T HANDLE MY STUPID FINGERS WHEN THEY TYPE. ALSO, INDIE CARTER AND SAM CARTER BELONG TO **TheAmericanNinja** GO CHECK OUT HER STORY!***

The countries—as in the whole WORLD—called each other on speaker-phone, so every personification could hear and talk to each other. Indie Carter and Sam Carter were also on that phone, as well as Alfred's states, Gilbert, and Lauren.

It took about three hours are arguing, shouting over each other, trying to recognize voices through the phone, not getting voices confused, and everything, until they confirmed that they would have it in the same place, same time, but in three days.

Ludwig, Roderick, and Elizabeta had been doing many chores, went shopping for food, and paying for Matthew's gas to pay for a prolonged stay. Lauren continued to hang out with Elizabeta, who taught her some Hungarian, and decorated her room with her.

Lauren put pictures of the seasons on either room of her wall. It was winter on one side, spring on the other, summer on the other, and fall on the other. And on the ceiling, she put pictures of every hour of the day over a fixed point. She told Elizabeta, "That way, if I ever feel bad about a time of day or season, then I can look at whatever I like!"

Elizabeta smiled, helping her tape something on the wall, and said, "Very smart! I vould not have zought of zat!"

Ludwig and Gilbert taught Lauren some German as well, which was complicated to catch on, as was Hungarian, but she was excited to be learning things. Matthew was also teaching Lauren about Canadian wildlife, plants, history, and all of those things. Lauren was feeling better, and they even stayed up late one night to watch a movie.

Finally, on the third night, they were going to go back to the meeting. Lauren was nervous because she was afraid that the countries and states would be mad at her, what Ivan's family would think, and everything. She was excited to be meeting the new states, the Baltics, and apologizing to Nataliya. She hoped to apologize, even if Nataliya didn't accept the apology.

Deciding to wear her red dress to the next meeting, Lauren put on the dress and found red ribbons to put in her hair. She put the yellow flower-band back in her hair like last time and wore black-and-red boots that went to her knees. She played with her two ahoges in the mirror, smiling. She liked how she looked, and she actually polished her glasses, so they were nice and shiny.

They all got into Matthew's car and drove away again. Lauren's stomach started feeling a little upset, because she was very nervous, but she liked hearing Elizabeta talk to her about Hungary, and she felt less nervous with Elizabeta talking.

By the time that they got to the meeting place, Lauren had forgotten that they were actually going to the meeting. Then she heard "we're here" and instantly felt sick to her stomach.

Gilbert shouted something in German that sounded like "SEE YA LATER!" and jumped out of the car before Matthew even brought it to a complete stop. Ludwig followed, scolding Gilbert for recklessness, then Matt followed awkwardly. Roderick then followed, murmuring things under his breath about immatureness. Elizabeta and Lauren left next. Lauren walked barely inches away from Elizabeta's back, holding onto her hand, feeling sick and nervous.

Elizabeta sensed this and said, "Honestly, it vill be okay."

"Thank you," Lauren said. Elizabeta continued, saying, "You didn't get to meet the rest of the vorld, anyway! You vill love the Asian countries, I bet!"

Lauren smiled and said, "Yeah, that's cool…I met a lot of Europe, but not Asia…"

As they approached the building, Lauren asked, "Oh, yeah, Elizabeta—what would you call Russia? A European country, or an Asian country?"

"I do not know!" Elizabeta exclaimed in surprise, "Perhaps Eurasian…"

"Probably," Lauren agreed.

They entered the building, still not any earlier than they were last time. Matt placed his hand on his forehead and said softly, "We're ten minutes early…perhaps we should leave an hour and a half earlier next time it's in Canada…"

Addison met Lauren at the door, wrapping her up in a hug and spinning her around like two ballerinas, Addison saying happily, "YEEE-HAAAAAAWWW, YOU CAAAAAAMMMEEE! YAY!"

Lauren laughed awkwardly, face bright red. Addison let her go, Lauren dizzy for a moment. Addison laughed merrily and said, "I thought that you'd stay in Canada or whatever!"

Furrowing her eyebrows, Lauren stammered, "B-But, aren't we _in_ Canada?"

Addison gasped, saying, "Wait, we are! We're in Canada? Wait, we're in Canada!" she turned to some light-haired, pale skinned girl with pale blue eyes who dressed like a missionary, and she said, "We're in Canada! Isabel, did you know that?"

"Yes," Isabel said. "Well, I _thought_ that we were in Canada…we certainly passed the Canadian border, right?"

"Yeah!" Another pale-haired-pale-skinned one said. She had pink eyes and looked like a female version of Gilbert. "We totally passed the border! I didn't notice, though!"

"We didn't pass the border!" Hugh exclaimed, surprised, "We didn't, right? I don't remember ever crossing any border!"

Addison was astounded, asking slowly and carefully, as if talking to idiots, "Wait, so are we in Canadia or not?"

"Canada, right?" Hugh asked, "It's called Canada, right?"

"What did I call it?"

"Canadie."

"No," Gaile said, "You totally said 'Canadia' bro!"

Lauren exclaimed, "YOU GUYS ARE CONFUSING ME! ARE WE IN CANADA OR WHAT?!"

"I DON'T KNOW!" The states all exclaimed. Isabel hung her head, groaning, and said, "Well…this is odd…"

After a moment of awkward silence, Isabel straightened up, saying in a cheery mood, eyes wide, sounding excited as if she received some sort of revelation from God, "WE ARE IN CANADA!"

"HOW DO YOU KNOW?!" every state including Lauren asked.

Isabel smiled, waving her right hand through the air, and said, "The Holy Spirit told me!"

Gaile threw her right arm over Isabel's shoulders, saying, "LISTEN TO MAH MORMON LIL' SIS! SHE TOTALLY JUST GOT A SIGN FROM GOD THAT WE'RE IN CANADA, YO!"

Hugh crossed his arms, saying something in Spanish, then said, "'Yo' is used in the wrong, um, place!"

"Context?" Madeline asked.

"YES!" Hugh said, pointing at Madeline. He then pointed at Gaile and said, "'YO' MEANS 'ME' BRO!"

Lauren hung her head, feeling smoke sizzle off of her forehead. Addison gently elbowed her and asked softly, "You alright?"

"Yes, thank you," Lauren said.

Addison smiled and said, "Great. Let me introduce you—that's Pennsylvania, Gaile. She's Germanic, like Kurtis, Madeline—Minnesota—and Isabel—Utah—so they're all interesting. Most of America is of Germanic descent, anyway, so the states will all probably be like Ludwig, Gilbert, Elizabeta, or Roderick, huh?"

"Probably," Lauren agreed.

Continuing, Addison said, "Gaile believes herself to be a Crusader, 'cuz she's kinda Teutonic. She likes Isabel, whose LDS or whatever you call it; Mormon. She and Kurtis get along, and she said that it's probably because the early LDS had been exiled from New York or something and stopped in Illinois, then were kicked out and settled down in Utah."

Lauren smiled, saying, "Cool! You guys all know your history, huh?"

"Yeah," Addison said, smiling. Lauren started to feel kind of sad, not knowing her history. She shrugged it off and said, "That's awesome! Hey, I'm gonna go find the Asian countries. You wanna come with?"

Addison opened her mouth to respond when Lillian and Hugh threw their arms over her shoulders, saying obnoxiously, "DUDE YOU TOTALLY WANNA GO PRANK ALFRED AND THAT MEXICAN" and "LET'S GO HAVE A PARTY, MAN, THIS IS GONNA BE TOTALLY WHOOOO'ING COOL AND LIKE GET YOU DRESSED FOR A PART BRO!"

Lauren smiled and walked away, leaving Addison to be with the other states. Lauren saw a man, not very tall, wearing a white suit, from behind. He had short-cropped black hair. She approached him and said clearly yet respectfully, "Hello, sir."

He turned around for Lauren to see that he was Japanese. He curtly bowed, and she bowed back as he said, "I am Honda Kiku; Japan."

"I am Lauren," she said, straightening up. "Quebec."

"Aiyah!" a feminine man exclaimed from behind Kiku, hiding behind the slightly-shorter Japanese man. The feminine man whispered, "Kiku, this Rauren, the same Rauren that we saw beat up Natariya!"

Kiku crept away from the feminine man and said, "Yes, I know. Do not be so rude, prease."

The Japanese man curtly bowed on the feminine man's behalf and said, "This is Yao, who is China."

Yao seemed wary of Lauren for a moment, then Lauren saw the panda on his back and exclaimed in a high-pitched voice, "Ooh, your panda is so cute, mister!"

Yao smiled and said, "Yes, Panda is great and cute!"

Lauren smiled as well, saying, "And your outfit is cute, too! Are those little kitties on your shoes?"

The Chinese man looked down at his outfit and said, "Yes, they are! I rove cute things!"

"Cute things are the best!" Lauren said. She looked at Kiku and said, "Honda-san," bowed, "thank you for introducing us."

"You are wercome," Kiku said, bowing back.

A Korean man came walking up, saying cheerily, "YAO, ARE YOU STIRR TRYING TO COME UP WITH ORIGINAR ANIME?!"

Yao got angry, saying, "Aiyah, I have originar anime's!"

Changing the subject, Yao introduced Lauren to the Korean, saying, "Im Yong Soo, this is Rauren-Quebec."

"Rauren?" Im Yong Soo gasped, eyes widening. Then his gaze dropped a little, and a weird look came to his face. Yao noticed this and said, "IM YONG SOO! NO! YOU WIRR NOT BE DOING THAT!"

Lauren bowed and said, "Pleasure to meet you, Im Yong Soo."

Bowing, the Korean said, "Preasure to meet you, Rauren."

Curtly taking leave, Lauren left the three Asian countries. She knew that there were more, but she would find them herself after checking up on the Baltics.

Tolys found her before she found him, and he sighed in relief, saying, "Miss Lauren!"

"Hello, Tolys!" Lauren said, smiling at him. Raivis and Eduard came walking up from behind Torys. Gaile was lingering around Eduard, trying to talk to him, saying things like, "BRO, COME ON, YOU GOT COMPUTERS, RIGHT? TELL ME WHERE I CAN GET A GOOD DEAL ON A PC!"

Eduard found it very ironic that Gaile Penn was very similar to Maria Beilschmidt, who was female Gilbert. Perhaps it made sense, a bit…a lot of American states had unknowingly large amounts of Germans among them. Also, Isabel was very religious and looked like Maria as well, so she could be the calmer version of the Prussian.

Gulping, Tolys said shakily, "I th-thought that you should have been staying at h-home…"

Confused, Lauren asked, "Why, Tolys?"

"M-Mister Ivan…" Raivis stammered. "H-He's here!"

Now Lauren remembered her conversation with Ivan a couple days ago and felt like gutting herself. He wasn't angry, though—well, he at least forgave her—so she reassured the three nations by saying, "Don't worry; I already spoke to him, and he forgave me."

Their eyes widened, and Eduard asked softly, "H-He _forgave_ you? The s-s-scary Mister Ivan?"

Lauren nodded and said, "Of course; he's the one." Smiling at them, she said, "I really appreciate your concern, and for not being afraid of me after the incident…"

Gulping, Tolys said, "O-Oh, that…" honestly, they _were_ a little scared, but she only became scary when the "bullies" were abusive, so they knew that she wouldn't hurt them. Tolys nodded and said, "Yeah, w-we thank you f-for appreciating…uh, our…concern…"

Lauren opened her arms, ready to hug them, and asked tentatively, "Can I hug you?" She didn't want to make them feel awkward, but they looked like they needed a good hug.

Shakily, the three Baltics agreed, and she wrapped her warm arms around them in a hug. Their faces all became red, but they enjoyed her hug. Her arms were tight and strong around them, but her hug was very comforting and loving. Tentatively, they all hugged her back. Lauren smiled wider, pulling away slowly, and said cheerily, "See, wasn't that nice? Hugs are nice…" her cheeks became pink, and she said, "Honestly, I don't really hug that much, but…" she thought back to Addison hugging her, and she said even louder and happier, "I got a hug from a friend earlier, and I feel like spreading it around!"

Raivis said shakily, "Y-Your hugs c-could melt J-Jack Frost, M-Miss Lauren…"

"Don't call me 'Miss'!" Lauren said cheerily. "Friends don't call other friends 'Miss' and 'Mister', do they?"

Eduard stammered, "I-I don't g-guess so…"

Suddenly, all three Baltics gasped and stiffened, frozen in fear. Lauren furrowed her eyebrows, asking worriedly, "What is it, guys?"

"_Privyeee~eet_! You are being ready to become one, _da_?"

Heart taking a bungee cord-dive to her feet and snapping back up again, Lauren mirrored the Baltic's look of surprise and terror. Then, instantly convincing herself, "_Idiot, don't be a stereotypical Canadian! You kill people during hockey games for Pete's sake! You don't have to be afraid of Ivan, he's okay, he forgave you, got it?_" and found bravery to turn around to face Ivan with a smile, saying, "Hello, Mister Braginski!"

"You will be calling me Ivan, _da_?" Ivan said, beaming at Lauren.

_Okay…_ Lauren thought, staying smiling as she said cheerily, "Of course, Mist—um, Ivan!" She felt in a good mood when she acted like it, so she continued feeling cheery as she said, "I'm glad that you forgave me!"

Ivan smiled down at her. Lauren was either a kiss-up, or she was in a generally good mood. He didn't mind either way, saying, "_Da_, I forgive you! I was even speaking to Nataliya, and she wasn't trying to become one today!"

Lauren smiled wider, genuinely feeling warmer. She didn't know Ivan's and Nataliya's relationship, but because he had been trying to hide from her and seemed please that she didn't want to "be one" anymore, apparently she usually wanted to become one, and now that changed. Lauren said, "That's great, isn't it?" Tolys, Raivis, and Eduard were all surprised that Nataliya didn't want to be one—what a miracle!

Nodding, Ivan said, "She even thanked you, like I am thanking you!"

Okay, Ivan had forgiven her, and for that, Lauren was grateful—but _thanking_ her? Even _Nataliya_ thanking her? Her jaw almost dropped, eyes widening, and she asked, "_Really_? Th…thanking me?"

"_Da_!" Ivan said, "Since beating Nataliya, Belarus's government has become free, and Nataliya asked me to be personally thanking you!"

Raivis, Eduard, and Tolys all felt awkward, not liking to be so close to Ivan. They prepared to leave, when Lauren instantly spoke to them positively, asking, "Isn't that great, guys? How about Nataliya being in a better mood?"

That certainly _did_ sound great, but standing so close to Ivan wasn't. They all nodded hurriedly, Tolys saying as respectfully as possible, "Yes, th-that is sounding great!"

Lauren smiled at him, a look in her eyes that he recognized as, "_Thanks for talking_". Lauren turned back to face Ivan, who had taken a step or two closer. He had a very calm, serene, pleased look on his face. His amethyst eyes and bright smile seemed inviting, like soft, new-fallen snow that hasn't yet been trampled on.

Eyes nearly widening with the curious feeling, Lauren instantly felt like leaving Ivan's presence. Reasoning; she wasn't understanding if she liked the feeling or not, which made her loathe the feeling. She hated uncertainty, which is why she often walked away from groups of nations when they started changing topic or talking to each other. She wasn't sure if they contained interest in her, if they wanted her to join the conversation, or what, so to avoid any uncertainty, she left so she would not have to wonder.

Smiling at Ivan, Lauren said, "Thank you again, Ivan, for forgiving me. Will you tell Nataliya that I am very happy for helping her?"

"_Da_," Ivan said, still smiling at Lauren. Lauren nodded, saying, "Okay, well, I have to go meet the other nations."

Lauren began to walk away, when some cloth wrapped around her neck, and Ivan said from behind her, "But we were becoming one, _da_?"

The Baltics all gasped, fearful again. First of all—Lauren was in danger! Second of all—Lauren was in danger! The last time that Lauren or someone she liked was in danger, a country almost died!

Lauren froze, instantly becoming empty. She _wanted_ to think of a way out of this or how to react, but not a single thought formed in her brain. In fact, every thought, even those that had filled in their graves, had left without a trace, flying around her head like mosquitos, yet not close enough to be used or even remotely recognized.

Ivan's scarf had wrapped around Lauren's neck, as if it were alive, and Ivan said childishly, "Other day on phone, I say, 'We become one' and you say, '_Da_,' so we become one now!"

_Holy cow,_ Lauren thought. _Oh man, baby seal diapers and polar bear droppings…man-oh-man-oh-man-oh-man-oh-man…geez, he sounds so innocent…why did I forget about that conversation…oh man maple-leaf-cigarettes…malamute-dung…orca-barf…crap-oh-crap…_ As calmly as she could muster, Lauren turned to face him and said, "Wait, I said…" Her eyes widened in false surprise, "Oh! I remember!" Ivan smiled at her, but the smile was different, as though instead of just being Ivan-looking, he found it funny that she forgot momentarily about their talk over the phone.

Ivan felt kind of hurt, though, at the same time, and he asked, "Were you really forgetting our talk on phone?"

Lauren shook her head, saying worriedly—sincerely concerned that she hurt his feelings, "_Nyet_, Ivan, I am so sorry! I remember not being able to sleep later, so Matthew gave me some sleeping medicine…I think it made me forget!"

That wasn't a _complete_ lie, because Lauren had in fact had problems getting to sleep, but she didn't really forget, obviously. Ivan accepted this, not noticing her lie—he could usually tell a lie from truth—and said, "_Da_, I see!" The scarf sort of tightened around Lauren's neck. Her neck felt warm and snug in the soft fabric, but while it tightened securely around her neck, it sort of tugged her closer to Ivan, like when someone reels in a fish.

Lauren carefully brought her hands up, petting the scarf, yet didn't take her forget-me-not-blue eyes away from Ivan's eyes. She felt the scarf, how soft and warm it was, and told Ivan calmly, "This scarf is very warm…where did you get it?"

The Baltics were still here, shaking in fear, backing away slowly, not knowing what to do. Lauren was either very naïve or very brave, the Baltics thought. Lauren was honestly worrying for her safety, which, in her opinion, was stupid because she was a personification with personifications around her, what could go wrong? But Lauren had confidence, which was stronger than courage or innocence.

Dragging Lauren in tighter, the scarf coiled up more around her neck. Ivan told her, "My sister, Yekaterina, gave scarf to me. She made it—I never take it off."

"That's sweet," Lauren said, beaming at Ivan as the scarf wrangled her in closer. She nearly tripped over her own feet, and she asked, "What does Yekaterina think of me?"

_RUN!_ Raivis thought, clinging onto Tolys's arm. Mister Ivan was showing a lot of interest in Lauren, and he didn't want her to become one! Ivan noticed the Baltics lingering, and he wasn't in the mood for them right then. He took his gaze away from Lauren's and told them, "You will be leaving now, _da_?"

Frozen instantly, the Baltics stared in fear. Lauren turned her head enough to see them, and she gave them a look that they couldn't recognize. The scarf had finished winding up, and Lauren was now pressed against Ivan, feeling her face grow hot. Ivan responded to Lauren's earlier comment, saying, "Yekaterina is very sad and being worried for Nataliya, but when Nataliya said that she is thanking you, Yekaterina is ready to be liking you—she has to be meeting you first, though."

Ivan looked at Lauren's pretty flower-colored blue eyes through her glasses. He, now staring directly down at her, took notice of the yellow flower-band in her hair. He smiled wider and giggled like a child, saying, "You have sunflower in hair, _da_?"

Lauren smiled, wanting to postpone "becoming one"—or however it worked—and said, "Yes, I think. It doesn't look as much like a sunflower as it could, though."

"I like sunflowers," Ivan said, smiling brightly at her. Lauren had to tilt her head back sharply to see him, who had to bend his head down. Lauren felt her face grow even hotter, and even though this wasn't really unpleasant, it was the fact that the indecisive feeling had started burning again, so she wanted to leave. Lauren told him, honestly, "I like sunflowers, too. "

She felt Ivan's chest rise, then lower, as he breathed, and she also smelled a hint of something familiar…it was something she had smelled before. She remembered going to the inn in Quebec, going into a daze where all she saw was white glare, and she smelled some alcoholic smell…Ivan had it on his breath…

A slight squeaking sound escaped Lauren's throat. _Vodka_. She wrapped her arms around Ivan and buried her face right beneath his chest. At this point in time, Raivis had whispered something to Tolys and had rushed away.

Ivan completely surprised. He felt her breath on his jacket. She breathed in, smelling the same comforting smell. Ivan, confused and warm-faced from the odd, sudden affection from Lauren, shakily placed his large hands on Lauren's back. Yekaterina came walking up from behind Ivan, only seeing some red-clad arms wrapping around his broad torso. She asked daintily, "_B-Brat_?"

At that same moment, coming from the opposite direction, Raivis broke through the crowd with Addison, Isabel, Gaile, Francis, Antonio, and Gilbert at his tail. All they saw was Ivan placing his hands on Lauren, his scarf wrapped around her neck, and what Raivis had told them about Ivan trying to make her become one.

Gilbert and Gaile were the first to react, the similar-looking non-nations throwing themselves around the two Baltics and grabbed onto Lauren sharply on either side, by her waist. Her eyes popped open, and she screeched as the albinos yanked her away. Her screech was inhuman, yet not evil like the sounds she made when she was attacking Nataliya.

"No!" Lauren screeched, flashing back to a pair of tender, leather-clad hands taking her and holding her to a leather jacket. They weren't unkind hands, taking her from Ivan, but they were taking her from familiar arms. She didn't hear Gilbert, the Yankees, Yekaterina, or the Baltics as they started saying things to each other, but she heard Ivan's voice, and she heard an annoying, yet concerned American-accented male voice asking, "Dudes, what's wrong?"

She didn't hear Matthew or Ludwig saying anything, but she heard Ivan and Alfred. She grabbed for the nearest body, Gilbert, and clung onto him. She hated thinking of those stupid things. That sudden explosion of hate made her realize where she was, hearing nations and Yankees asking what happened.

Gilbert asked very hatefully, "Vhat did the commie do to you?"

Shaking, Lauren said clearly, "Nothing! He was sad because he said that sunflowers always die from snow, so I hugged him!"

The nations and Yankees looked at her oddly in disbelief, Gilbert in particular. Yekaterina was now holding onto Ivan's arm, begging for an explanation on why he had his arms around the same girl who hurt Nataliya.

Angrily, Gilbert countered, "Raivis said zat he vas trying to get you to become vun vithz him!"

Shooting a glare at him, Lauren said in an irritated tone, "He wants _everyone_ to become one with him, right? And how often does that happen?"

Indie and some other girl, about a year or two older in appearance, came hurrying up. Both were holding several coffee mugs in their hands, and Indie gasped, "Dudes, what the heck is going on?!"

"Hey Indie!" Lauren called casually, waving. Gilbert didn't let go of Lauren's arm, holding her protectively, Matt holding her from the other side. Many personifications shot angry glances at Ivan, and vice-versa, and Lauren said hatefully, "You guys need to stop being so stupid! I'm not going to hurt anyone, and no one is going to hurt me! Got it?"

She pulled away from Gilbert and Matt—she felt bad for pulling away from Matt, so she held his hand—and said, "Guys, can we just start this stupid meeting before more things screw up?"

Well, the meeting went on perfectly, Lauren apologized to Yekaterina, who accepted the apology, she apologized to Ivan about the other nations and Yankees, to which he accepted and said that it happened all the time, and she got to meet Indie's sister, Sam.

Nothing was improved in the world, except for the fact that some Polish guy sneakily slapped some pink on everyone's outfit—most people hated it, but Lauren was nice and acted really excited, hugged the guy, and then blah-blah-blah, the meeting ended like it normally did, with countries arguing with each other, but now they had Isabel running around trying to spread the word of "Our Lord and Savior" while the Gilbert-clones went around trying to harass nations that they thought were unawesome.

You know, stuff that's normal. In Belarus, Nataliya Arlovskaya was lying in bed, reading a book. She couldn't stop thinking of her darling siblings—especially Ivan, but not in a creepy way like she used to. She was more tame—still Nataliya, but more understanding of Ivan's feelings toward her.

_*HERE'S A PLAYLIST OF MUSIC I LISTEN TO WHILE WRITING THIS, JUST IN CASE; "__**Russian Roulette**__" by 10 Years, "__**Leave Me Alone**__", "__**Fairyland**__", "__**Oah**__", "__**Europe's Skies**__", and "__**Superhero**__" by Alexander Rybak, "__**Let it Burn**__" by Red, "__**24**__" by Jem, "__**Anti the Holic**__" with Hetaloid US and UK, "__**Justice Breaker**__" with Ameriloid, "__**Safe and Sound**__" by Taylor Swift, stuff by Lindsey Stirling, "__**Be my Friend**__" by One-Eyed Doll, and more stuff._


	12. Please Read! D:

***I HATE DO THIS, BUT I HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO WRITE "ABSOLUTE ZERO"'s NEXT CHAPTER THANKS TO WRITER'S BLOCK, SO I HAVE DECIDED TO POST SOMETHING I'VE BEEN WORKING ON TO TRY AND FIX MY BRAIN FART! THIS IS AN ORIGINAL STORY WITH CHARACTERS, SO NO USE IN ANY WAY! PLEASE REVIEW! D:***

I stand on the sidewalk, arms folded over my chest, back against a brick wall. I wear a white button-up shirt with a black vest over it that matches my black pants and shiny black shoes. I have been waiting for an hour to meet this guy. Well, perhaps I better say 4.5 billion years, but that's an understatement. I sigh, holding up my right wrist to my ear, listening to the silver watch tick. I then lift up my left wrist and glance at the gold watch for the time. It isn't a normal watch like your watches; its hour hand comes out of the upper right corner, the minute hand coming out a little further from the middle and to the lower left. The numbers, as well, are not very human. They are squiggly, incredibly tiny, there are seventy-eight of them, and they appear in circles, straight lines, slightly curved lines, 90-degree angles, acute angles, obtuse angles, some with circles, dots, and other shapes inside of them; they somewhat resemble cheetah spots.

I read the watch. It is officially 52:76 T.M. I guess that I could translate that into your standards of reading; 5:30 P.M. It is January, but it is a very nice day. This is actually the first of the year today, so I plan to avoid humans because most will be drunk. In my culture, the year does not start at the beginning of what could be related to as January. We have an 8,456,902 month long year, with a 60 hour long day. Now do you see where you get your seconds from?

Don't ask me if our hours are your seconds, because in reality, they're not. Ours are, however, as long as your smaller-than-you-can-count-seconds. A day in our time is similar to a 0.0000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000001 of a second in your time. Actually, there are a lot more 0's in there, but I'm not wasting that many years counting them all for you, when you won't even understand.

Seeing as you might want to know who I am or who my comrades in this "narrative" are, then I might as well introduce you. The man who is five months late—in Universal time, my time, of course—for our meeting; I call him Diego DiVega, although his _real_ name—meaning his "I just came to Earth" name—is Dimitri Rovigatti. He has short-cropped black hair that is usually messy, but it is straight and cut nicely, so I don't give him too much grief over it. He always wears a brown leather jacket over his tan button-up shirt, tan pants, and tan shoes. He has tan skin, caramel-brown eyes, and fairly thick black eyebrows and a thick build. Ignore him if he looks tough; he's a strong as a newborn bunny.

Now, those almost identical twins there; they are the Vincente twins (whom I call the Italy's). They are _Italian_. (Don't underestimate their childishness and cowardice for weakness; they've been in Italy since the Renaissance, Diego since it was the West Roman Empire, and all three of them are passionate about that country; the Italy Twins even invented the mafia) The lighter one with lighter brown hair, which is curlier, longer, and brushed back in clumps behind his ears; he is Celio Vincente (whom I call Feliciano DiVega). He has a feminine face, light green eyes, fairly Caucasian skin, thin eyebrows, has a slender, feminine build, and always wears pale-blue-with-green-vertical-stripes on button-up shirts. He wears khakis and sneakers.

His brother is Cesarino Vincente (whom I call Romano DiVega); he has darker tan skin like Diego, darker hair—lighter than Diego's and darker than Feliciano's—and dark green-brown eyes. He is usually in a fairly bad mood, unlike Feliciano, who is always cheery. They have similar faces, and they are both equipped with the feminine stature, same height, slender built, and blue-and-green appearance, only Romano wears green-with-dark-blue-horizontal-stripes on his sweater-vest. He also wears khakis, but he wears fancier shoes.

Well, now you know the three Vegans—and I'm not talking about those plant-eating people—so I should move on to the Germans, who will be introduced much later—well, they're not that much later, I suppose, but it is still very late in Universal Time. If they will be introduced later, then I will speak of them later, when they show up.

You know the three Vegans—in case you don't know, it is pronounced Vay-guns, like the brightest star in the Lyra constellation, which is pronounced Vay-guh—so you might as well know me. After all, I _am_ the "main character". But, then again, so are you. You cannot tell anyone else's thoughts, like most main characters, and how is it so uncanny that everything either works perfectly for you, or perfectly against you, as if you were the protagonist of a book? Perhaps you are really the main character, and I am merely the character that is never introduced, never spoken of, never thought of, never even remotely felt.

Since you now understand, I will introduce myself later.

I am, right now, waiting for Diego. I hear footsteps behind me, and I turn around to face the man I described earlier as he approaches. I ask him in an English accent, "Why are you always late?"

The man raises a thick eyebrow, asking in a slight Italian accent, "What do you mean? I'm on time."

With a sigh, I tell him, "Never mind. Diego, what have you called me here for?"

Diego smiles and says, "Can't you ever call me by my name? Here"—he reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a leather wallet, opening it as he hands it to me. In it is his license, saying "**DIMITRI ROVIGATTI**". "See? My name is _Dimitri Rovigatti_; not _Diego DiVega_."

Ignoring him, I ask, "Why did you call me here?"

"Talk about changing the subject!" the young man says, beaming. His cheery face turns sort of forlorn, and he says, "Well, I _did_ call you here for an important reason…okay, you know Celio and Cesarino?"

I nod. They are the Feliciano and Romano that I spoke of earlier. I say, "Yes. What is it?"

Diego opens his mouth to say, when I interrupt, saying, "Romano has a daughter."

Staring at me for a moment, Diego says, "Wait, if by 'Romano' you mean 'Cesarino', then…" he seems to realize that I already knew what he was going to say, and he gasps, saying in disbelief, "_How did you know_?!"

"You act like you don't know me," I say, staring Diego in the eyes. Perhaps I act like I hate him, but in reality, I admire him. In every time loop, every "refresh" button pressed, he always came to Gaia. Even if his family tried to stop him, or he didn't have money, or he was sick, or someone he knew was sick, or the government didn't allow such a large Exodus of Vegans leaving at once—he always came to Earth, legally or illegally.

Why do I always act so rude around him? What had Diego done to be treated so badly? Diego doesn't understand why I am so snobbish around him, why I am so sarcastic, why I insult him casually, as if I am reciting Shakespeare. Diego ponders this, but ignores his uncertainties as usual and says, "Okay, fine, I forgot, okay? Well, since you know—Cesarino has a daughter—what do we do?"

Furrowing my eyebrows, I seriously start to question his motives for everything. He always comes to me for every problem, asks me every question, and he always tries to drag me into his and his friends' problems. I ask him, "What do you mean, 'we'? When did I volunteer to climb aboard your sinking ship a-flame and offer my precious time to your worthless conquests?"

Diego claps his hands together in front of his face, as if in prayer, and begs, "Bendy, please! You know absolutely everything, so how do I respond to such a thing? Cesarino told Celio to go help 'em fetch her, and Celio pleaded with me to come with _him_, and I'm _BEGGING_ you to come with _me_!" He gets right up in my personal space, making me lean back under his puppy-dog stare. He begs, "Please, Bendy! The girl's mom _just_ died!"

I shake my head, saying, "No, her mother didn't _just_ die. Her guardian just died. Tragically, the girl has faced a lot of sadness. The man that she thought was her father died in action for the Australian military, and not too long ago, the woman that she believed was her mother died as well. Now, imagine being told that your parents weren't actually your parents at all, and your real parents are aliens, and her real mother died during child birth, and her father hadn't a clue that she existed before now?"

The Vegan-Italian stares me in the eyes. After a moment, he says, "Okay, okay, yes. Exactly. You know how everyone thinks and feels, so you need to come along to comfort her and everything! My bros and I can't do that!"

Groaning, my shoulders sag. I tilt my head down and to the right a bit, looking up at the taller Dimitri-whom-I-call-Diego, and I say, "I see your reasoning."

Fist-pumping, Diego bounds away in circles, saying, "Yes yes yes! That is totally a yes! Thanks, bro!"

I simply shrug, saying, "You are welcome."

He starts to plan our plane ride out of Scotland and to the Land down Under. He'll have to bring some educational books for me, and bring his IPod to listen to some music on the flight so he won't be bored! I shatter his ideas of Australian Airlines by saying to him, "Wait a moment."

Diego turns around, looking at me quizzically. He and I have a very complicated relationship, and he is used to my outbursts like this, but he doesn't know why he needs to stop. I tell him, "We are not getting on an airplane."

Shoulders sagging, Diego asks, "Yes we are? I mean, Bendy, she's gonna be sent to Illinois, _AMERICA_—you _HATE_ America—if we don't catch her in time!"

"I know," I explain. "She is being sent to a Star Academy, I get it—but you do remember that time works differently for me, Diego? I do not exist among time, yet time continues playing in every dimension, every second, ever millisecond, every outcome, every potential catastrophe, every hopeful blessing, over and over without ceasing, like drops of different-colored food coloring dripped into the toilet as it flushes away—spin forever, go down the drain, then face the process again. I am that clear drop of food coloring, because I was there, I _am_ there, present in every single speck of time and space, whether it has happened yet or not, but not in the way that humans or Visitors face. Mind explaining how?"

The Italian stares at me. I can feel his concern of saying something wrong, but he says, "You don't exist, so you, like, aren't anywhere? You're everywhere and nowhere, right? If I were to go two seconds into the future, you wouldn't be there, and if I were to go half a second into the past, you wouldn't be there, either…?"

Nodding, I say, "Correct, DiVega. Now, you promised to do me a favor if I met you. Well, I have met you, so here is the favor."

Shrugging, the guy nonchalantly raises an eyebrow. He does favors for me a lot—why is this any different? He tells me, "Shoot, bro."

"I need your invisibility," I explain.

Diego's eyes widen. Invisibility? First of all—THAT'S DANGEROUS!—second of all—THAT'S ILLEGAL! He tells me in a hushed, desperate voice—afraid of someone overhearing—"Bendy, that's illegal and dangerous, bro! I could kill me and you both!"

Correcting him, I say, "You meant 'I could kill both you and I'. Anyways, do I ever bring you into situations that end up killing us?"

He opens his mouth to speak, then I say, "Well, we are here, so apparently, I have not killed us yet. In my trillions of years of manifesting, I have not died yet. Well, physically, it is unstoppable, but no matter the electrical charge, I have not spiritually died as of yet."

The Italian ends up agreeing with me. To be honest, I do not have a spirit—say that you were to dissect an average human being, and you would find a heart filled with hopes, dreams, wishes, and those they love. You would find a brain with pleasant memories and dark, haunting ghosts. You would find a stomach full of butterflies for things to come, usually full enough where it doesn't cramp with hunger. You would find limbs, like arms and legs, which have worked hard for a long time—even if said person has no arms or legs, it is the feeling of humans that we're looking at; they work even harder to live, so they would have very well-built limbs. Look back to both the heart and brain; you will find plans for the future dwelling in both places, and in between mentioned points, are emotions, thoughts, actions, floating around like bubbles in gelatin. If you were to dissect me; you would find a hollow, pitch-black cavity.

Sad, right? That is your assumption—anything unlike yourself is automatically a sad human being. Someone with more money than you is sad because they're greedy. Someone with less money than you is sad because they work hard for nothing. Anyone younger than you is sad because they have not mentally or emotionally matured as well as you have. Anyone older than you is sad because they've been through more hardships. Anyone who is male is sad because they have to do all the back-breaking work and pay for the house. Anyone who is female is sad because they have to fight for a right in society.

Lies. Sometimes, if someone has more money than you, they work harder. Someone with less money has squandered it all away for lottery, beer, and drugs. Someone younger than you may know more than you—take those five-year-old children learning to play piano, violin, and those elementary-school children in Europe who learn three languages fluently. Someone older than you might have lived a cushioned life, probably never going to war or seeing financial problems. Someone who is male is presumably the dominant of women and will be less likely to be targeted in crimes or will be less likely to be affected by peer pressure. Women have the fact that even to this "modern day and age" people think of them as not as efficient as men, thus will be able to call themselves over-achievers.

I am merely genetically filled with the potential to lack any "human" qualities. I do not allow myself to become human the same way that most humans do not allow themselves to be creatures of the wilderness that eat other creatures raw. In all honesty, most "people" like me have become human in ways, but I do not allow myself to become like that. There is only one quality of your kind that I have allowed to seep into my empty core.

Religion. Such a wonderful creation. So many ideas, as well! Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity—and all of its little branches, like Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, and LDS, those weird guys—Catholicism, Muslimism, and Judaism—my favorite; meaning that I believe it. Am I Jewish? I suppose so, since I wear a Star of David around my neck and believe what they believe.

(No, I didn't mention Atheists, because a religion is the spiritual belief in a god, gods, goddesses, or deities, which Atheists do not believe in. How dare you call it a religion, you idiots.)

Religion. Such a wonderful creation. It causes so much destruction, you understand? It is a shame how something so beautiful, so life-changing, is so deadly. I hate the Native American genocide—although that didn't focus so much around religion, but it was a part of it—the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, and something else that I hate even more with a fiery passion. One thing that fills my empty abyss of a being is Judaism. I have found myself unable to forgive those and those descended of those slaves of evil. Why? I am very forgiving, but when I have reset time or looked at every possible outcome, beginning, every little piece changed, like a single person's sexuality or one woman's miscarriage. I have looked at it all, and in every single aspect in time, whether the US was a super power, if the Africans had enslaved the Europeans, if women became "top dog" or if the Allies lost WWI, one thing never changed. Those people were always so corrupted; the same people, every time, same era, same time frame.

Diego knows that it is better not to argue with me, so I lead him away. Meanwhile, in Australia, a fourteen-year-old girl named Marc'toni—pronounced "Markt-oh-nee"—throws her clothes angrily into a bag. Instead of living with her aunt, which she had preferred over every death-scenario phenomenon, she was going to be sent to a boarding school in AMERICA.

Okay, she loves American pride, okay? Okay?! But she hates AMERICANS! She had _been_ to the US! Do you know how illiterate their children are!? (To be honest, I agree with her thinking entirely. If I did not already know the outcome, I might as well hypothesize that we will become fairly good friends) When she was there, a fourteen-year-old couldn't spell "video"! He thought it was "vedio" and it had taken three weeks before Marc'toni could shove a dictionary in his face long enough to show him how it was spelled!

Also, in _AMERICA_, THE GREAT U-S-OF-_A_, one girl had handed her a hand-drawn picture that said "I OVSLY LUV 1D".

Ovsly.

OVSLY?! Marc'toni had no clue what the heck she meant, then actually said—without meaning to be so sarcastic, because this girl was almost her friend—"You obviously mean '_obviously_'."

That girl had no clue what "obviously" meant or how to spell it! This was a thirteen-year-old girl! Marc'toni had been studying for a quiz and asked, "Who were all the men who founded the US?"

Five thirteen-and-fourteen-year-olds had been surrounding her when she asked that, and all of them said, "You be jokin', right? '_Founded_' ain't a word!"

(In all reality, this is true. Go to a United States public school and listen to the "mature young men and women" speak. Marc'toni is not exaggerating, either; the slang accent and illiterate lack of knowledge was that bad when she was there, and it got worse.)

_KILL ME NOW!_ Marc'toni thinks. She runs her fingers through her slightly-longer-than-pixie-cut dark-red-brown-black hair. _AT LEAST I'D BE WITH MOM AND DAD!_

Aunt Beck will fly with her to Illinois and visit her every holiday and when school had a break. Marc'toni can _not_ WAIT to be in America! The home of obesity—ALSO, WHEN SHE WAS THERE, SHE HAD SAID "obese" instead of "fat" and not a single student out of thirty-three fellow thirteen-to-fourteen-year-olds in her class had known what that word meant.

_God,_ she thinks, actually kneeling by her bed and clasping her hands together. _I don't ask for much, really, I don't, but remember when Mamma was sick and I prayed to not be separated? At least take me to be with her, okay? Even if she somehow ended up in "the other land down under," I want to be with her…please don't make me have to go to America! _

For thirty minutes she prayed, arguing with herself over what she meant by what she said, then she finally concluded that God knew what her heart meant, so she got up. Now she heads into the living room to be with Aunt Beck for one last night.

***OKAY DON'T HATE ME PLEASE. PLEASE. I'M TOTALLY SORRY HERE.***


End file.
